Guinness
Active member
(Yvon, I had to even the score)
On 23 February I headed down the AMR road to start my way up toward Dial or Nippletop. The Leach trail was already broken out so I choose to start there. The trail was easy to follow up to the Noonmark shoulder where the previous tracks turned around. From there I was on my own having to route find and break some trail until the start up Bear Den.
I have not been on this trail in a couple of years and noticed it has been re-routed using a switch back to head down to the stream crossing. No longer does it follow the cliff line. I like this new (old) route.
The trail up Bear Den was easy to follow with only minor fill in of the trail. However, the branches were very covered and my full trip to Dial was very wet as I knocked off the snow.
Once at Dial, I had no views at all. The trail toward Nippletop was not recently opened, but it did not look all that bad to break. However I had to be back at the Ausable Inn before 6:00 to meet a friend and I decided to limit todays summits to only Dial.
On my return, the sky opened up to great views. I spent some time on the Noonmark shoulder relaxing and enjoying the views. On the way down, I managed to catch my snowshoe off the trail and did this seasons first face plant. Solo hiking is so enjoyable knowing there is no camera waiting for you to enter a spruce trap or recovering from a face plant.
Little did I know there were two other hikers starting out with Nippletop hoping to meet me coming from Dial so each of us could have a nice broken trail to follow. If I knew this going in, I probably would have continued to Nippletop.
On 23 February I headed down the AMR road to start my way up toward Dial or Nippletop. The Leach trail was already broken out so I choose to start there. The trail was easy to follow up to the Noonmark shoulder where the previous tracks turned around. From there I was on my own having to route find and break some trail until the start up Bear Den.
I have not been on this trail in a couple of years and noticed it has been re-routed using a switch back to head down to the stream crossing. No longer does it follow the cliff line. I like this new (old) route.
The trail up Bear Den was easy to follow with only minor fill in of the trail. However, the branches were very covered and my full trip to Dial was very wet as I knocked off the snow.
Once at Dial, I had no views at all. The trail toward Nippletop was not recently opened, but it did not look all that bad to break. However I had to be back at the Ausable Inn before 6:00 to meet a friend and I decided to limit todays summits to only Dial.
On my return, the sky opened up to great views. I spent some time on the Noonmark shoulder relaxing and enjoying the views. On the way down, I managed to catch my snowshoe off the trail and did this seasons first face plant. Solo hiking is so enjoyable knowing there is no camera waiting for you to enter a spruce trap or recovering from a face plant.
Little did I know there were two other hikers starting out with Nippletop hoping to meet me coming from Dial so each of us could have a nice broken trail to follow. If I knew this going in, I probably would have continued to Nippletop.
