Seems like lots of people were thinking Pemi Loop on Saturday.
It was just a great day out there, as all the reports attest.
Started just after Bombadil at about 3:45 am and went counter-clockwise. Although Bombadil had broken out Twinway earlier in the week, it had pretty much drifted over and I had to route find a lot of it over again. Made a pretty big mistake at one point, but knowing that Adam Wilcox was following in his Winter Full Hut Traverse I backtracked once I got back on the trail so he wouldn’t follow my mistake.
Everything was going pretty great until I passed the Gale River Trail turnoff, where the Garfield Ridge Trail was then only broken by one dusted-over snowshoe track. In the sun the snow started sticking heavily to my snowshoes and suddenly the going was twice as hard. Negative thoughts started creeping in -- if it was going to be like this for the rest of the Garfield Ridge Trail I wasn’t sure I could make it. Then the first bit of luck happened when the trail abruptly went from mostly unbroken to well broken. Huh? Some large party had apparently done an out and back from somewhere, and the going was suddenly easy again. (Turns out it was three guys just doing a day jaunt from the Garfield shelter – what luck!) A while after this I met a couple of strapping young guys, and in my second bit of great luck for the day, they informed me that they had broken the entire Garfield Ridge Trail from Mt Lafayette, as well as cleared tons of snow off hugely laden branches all along the way. Awesome!
But worry crept back in again when these guys told me that despite trying, they could not open the spring at the Garfield campsite. I really wasn’t carrying enough water for the entire loop, trying to keep my already 27 lb pack weight down. Big gamble, and now it wasn’t looking too good and maybe I’d have to bail down the Skookumchuck or Greenleaf trail searching for water.
Soon after this, somewhere near the base of Garfield, I crossed paths with Bombadil on his clockwise loop. He was looking strong, especially considering the huge hikes he had done the day before, then starting again on only 4 hrs of sleep! He confirmed that despite trying, there was no water to be had at the Garfield spring. Bummer.
I arrived at the spring site and rapidly understood what they were talking about. Almost giving up, I gave one more look and noticed a deep hole punched by a ski pole. I took off my sunglasses, got on my knees, and peered down the hole, and whad’ya know, I could see moving water! Two minutes of digging and I had all the water I needed. When someone punched the hole it probably just had snow packed at the bottom and didn’t look like anything, but the hole was EXACTLY located off the end of the wooden bottle-filler trough, and the trickle removed the snow by the time I got there. Now that’s some dumb luck!
One final bit of luck was that by the time I summited Lafayette the wind was almost gone, and Franconia ridge in the waning sun was just amazing. Back to the car in 15:24, very much enjoying the nicely graded and very well brushed out Osseo trail on the way down.
It was just a great day out there, as all the reports attest.
Started just after Bombadil at about 3:45 am and went counter-clockwise. Although Bombadil had broken out Twinway earlier in the week, it had pretty much drifted over and I had to route find a lot of it over again. Made a pretty big mistake at one point, but knowing that Adam Wilcox was following in his Winter Full Hut Traverse I backtracked once I got back on the trail so he wouldn’t follow my mistake.
Everything was going pretty great until I passed the Gale River Trail turnoff, where the Garfield Ridge Trail was then only broken by one dusted-over snowshoe track. In the sun the snow started sticking heavily to my snowshoes and suddenly the going was twice as hard. Negative thoughts started creeping in -- if it was going to be like this for the rest of the Garfield Ridge Trail I wasn’t sure I could make it. Then the first bit of luck happened when the trail abruptly went from mostly unbroken to well broken. Huh? Some large party had apparently done an out and back from somewhere, and the going was suddenly easy again. (Turns out it was three guys just doing a day jaunt from the Garfield shelter – what luck!) A while after this I met a couple of strapping young guys, and in my second bit of great luck for the day, they informed me that they had broken the entire Garfield Ridge Trail from Mt Lafayette, as well as cleared tons of snow off hugely laden branches all along the way. Awesome!
But worry crept back in again when these guys told me that despite trying, they could not open the spring at the Garfield campsite. I really wasn’t carrying enough water for the entire loop, trying to keep my already 27 lb pack weight down. Big gamble, and now it wasn’t looking too good and maybe I’d have to bail down the Skookumchuck or Greenleaf trail searching for water.
Soon after this, somewhere near the base of Garfield, I crossed paths with Bombadil on his clockwise loop. He was looking strong, especially considering the huge hikes he had done the day before, then starting again on only 4 hrs of sleep! He confirmed that despite trying, there was no water to be had at the Garfield spring. Bummer.
I arrived at the spring site and rapidly understood what they were talking about. Almost giving up, I gave one more look and noticed a deep hole punched by a ski pole. I took off my sunglasses, got on my knees, and peered down the hole, and whad’ya know, I could see moving water! Two minutes of digging and I had all the water I needed. When someone punched the hole it probably just had snow packed at the bottom and didn’t look like anything, but the hole was EXACTLY located off the end of the wooden bottle-filler trough, and the trickle removed the snow by the time I got there. Now that’s some dumb luck!
One final bit of luck was that by the time I summited Lafayette the wind was almost gone, and Franconia ridge in the waning sun was just amazing. Back to the car in 15:24, very much enjoying the nicely graded and very well brushed out Osseo trail on the way down.
