campsite
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On Saturday, Fran and I left the Davis Path parking lot at 7am in approx 0 degree weather with a stiff wind sweeping down the notch. Putting on our snowshoes, the DP showed signs of having been previously broken, but had filled in with approx 2 to 8 inches of snow. A few choice areas reserved a greater snow depth. Reaching the Crawford Spur, we dumped our packs, and reached the summit, greeted by a brilliant blue winter sky - the wind had now died. Going back down to our packs, we continued on the DP. The trail still showed signs of having been previously broken, but curiously enough the snow depth doubled, up to the jct with the Mt. Parker trail. The trail to Stairs col and beyond did not show signs of having been broken and the snow depth increased. Dumping our packs in the col, we headed up Stairs, encountering difficulties trying to climb over the deep snow on the ledgy areas of the trail. As with Crawford, the views from Stairs were stunning. We headed back to our packs in the col, and hoofed it back to the Mt. Parker trail jct. Again dumping our packs, we snowshoed up the Mt. Parker trail in similar conditions as the DP. At the big rock on the MPT, we took off on a 65-degree bearing, for the true summit. The woods were rather thick and scratchy for most of the bw, opening up completely in the rocky summit area. By now, the views had dimmed due to the now milky sky. We then returned to our packs for a bite to eat before heading back. While munching away, we heard a group coming down the MPT. This was a pleasant meeting since it turned out we had hiked with most of these people over the years. Many thanks to Fran for performing 75% of the trail breaking (I was having an "off" day), and for hardly ever asking "how much longer is it to that d*** mountain".