Bombadil
Active member
3-12-13 Dicey Mill/Blueberry Ledge
I took Dicey Mill up in the pouring rain and the snowshoe track was consolidating a little bit under my weight but held up pretty well. The steeps below the Passaconaway summit were rock hard even in the rain so I have no doubt they'll be bony once all this wet snow refreezes.
Nice snowshoe track heading over to Whiteface getting around the blowdowns. Very big thanks to Bryan and others that broke out E Sleeper. I had planned on breaking it out in the rain today but having suffered through this hike I'm ecstatic that I had a track to follow. Snow conditions were considerably tougher as soon as I headed off the heavily traveled Passaconaway/Whiteface snowshoe track. The snow would briefly take my weight but as I transferred my weight the snow would collapse 12-18" and sometimes more making travel pretty tedious--worse than trailbreaking. Some of the tracks went over the mounds of blowdowns and in the wet snow I began sinking into waist deep spruce traps so when I encountered these mounds I began leaping from branch to branch which worked but was a nice leg workout. Easily followed the tracks to the 'summit'.
The upper ledges on Blueberry were fine but I did encounter ~10 or so instances of soft snow/slush on the lower ledges that had either water pooled or had running water under the snowpack which led to me sinking into nearly knee deep water. At the bottom of the ledges there was a gushing stream that formed and was flowing down the trail. I expect the lower ledges will be very icy when the water freezes unless it somehow drains before that. It wouldn't keep me from traveling on the trail but I'd expect microspikes would be needed for traveling as my ankles and knees hurt thinking about traveling over that mess when it freezes. Lots of running and standing water down by Ferncroft, the parking lot was a pond when I returned to my car. Tough day.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
I took Dicey Mill up in the pouring rain and the snowshoe track was consolidating a little bit under my weight but held up pretty well. The steeps below the Passaconaway summit were rock hard even in the rain so I have no doubt they'll be bony once all this wet snow refreezes.
Nice snowshoe track heading over to Whiteface getting around the blowdowns. Very big thanks to Bryan and others that broke out E Sleeper. I had planned on breaking it out in the rain today but having suffered through this hike I'm ecstatic that I had a track to follow. Snow conditions were considerably tougher as soon as I headed off the heavily traveled Passaconaway/Whiteface snowshoe track. The snow would briefly take my weight but as I transferred my weight the snow would collapse 12-18" and sometimes more making travel pretty tedious--worse than trailbreaking. Some of the tracks went over the mounds of blowdowns and in the wet snow I began sinking into waist deep spruce traps so when I encountered these mounds I began leaping from branch to branch which worked but was a nice leg workout. Easily followed the tracks to the 'summit'.
The upper ledges on Blueberry were fine but I did encounter ~10 or so instances of soft snow/slush on the lower ledges that had either water pooled or had running water under the snowpack which led to me sinking into nearly knee deep water. At the bottom of the ledges there was a gushing stream that formed and was flowing down the trail. I expect the lower ledges will be very icy when the water freezes unless it somehow drains before that. It wouldn't keep me from traveling on the trail but I'd expect microspikes would be needed for traveling as my ankles and knees hurt thinking about traveling over that mess when it freezes. Lots of running and standing water down by Ferncroft, the parking lot was a pond when I returned to my car. Tough day.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
