danno
New member
Our original planned hike was to spend 4 days and 3 nights going on the AT from Saddleback through the Crockers. We decided to cut this distance short because the amount of snow we hit on the far side of the Horn. We knew it would be deep snow through all but the peaks, so we ended up staying out only 1 night in a tent on the northern side of The Horn.
By the time we had dropped a car off at Sugarloaf, and reached the parking lot of Saddleback, we got a later start than planned (just before noon). With 4 days of food with us, we headed up the Green Weaver trail to the summit. It was a warm day, and the snow was a bit sticky on the slopes. Once above the slopes, the wind kicked in, and it got colder with dryer snow conditions. We got to the summit of Saddleback at 2:25pm. (note, the skiers and ski patrol on Saddleback were great, very friendly people)
With a long way to go for the day, we headed over to The Horn and reached the summit around 3:25pm. The views on both peaks were great. The larger packs were working like sails and we were being blown around quite a bit, so we didn't spend too much time on the Horn summit.
We quickly headed off the Horn peak, and followed the trail off the summit until we basically lost the trail. We spent some time looking for the trail, backtracked to the last cairn, and looked around with no success at finding the trail. With map and compass in hand there was no doubt where we needed to go, so we headed in the direction of the ridge below Saddleback Junior where we knew we would come up with the trail. On the way the snow was very deep, and thus the going was way too slow.
With the sun near the point of going down, and the light decreasing we decided that we weren't going to make it to the Poplar Ridge shelter this evening, so we found a place on the side of the mountain where we could dig out a space for the tent. We cut out and stomped on a place for the tent, and built a makeshift kitchen. We cooked snow for water and had some hot drinks, started dinner, and put up the tent.
When the sun set, it was interesting how dark it was out (no moon because of the eclipse. We were able to see the moon at various eclipse stages through the clouds. We crashed after dinner at around 9pm-ish. A little rain and snow came down throughout the evening.
The next morning, we made the decision not to go on based on how deep the snow was. though the photos don't show it, we were sinking a lot with our packs on, and thus it was doubtful that we would make the distance we were looking to make over the next 3 days. Thus we packed up camp and headed back to Saddleback. On the way back in the col between the mountains we came to some tracks that looked like some kind of cat.
We got back to the warming hut and heated up our chili (our planned 2nd night dinner) in the available microwave. Felt like cheating (as did the wood stove), but it was the thing to do in the warming hut. We got back down to the car and headed to Sugarloaf to pick up the 2nd car. Along the way in Stratton I stopped to take a photo of a moose.
All in all it was a nice trip, though shorter than we had planned.
Photos here:
http://sopomedia.com/trips/2007/Saddleback-Horn/index.html
By the time we had dropped a car off at Sugarloaf, and reached the parking lot of Saddleback, we got a later start than planned (just before noon). With 4 days of food with us, we headed up the Green Weaver trail to the summit. It was a warm day, and the snow was a bit sticky on the slopes. Once above the slopes, the wind kicked in, and it got colder with dryer snow conditions. We got to the summit of Saddleback at 2:25pm. (note, the skiers and ski patrol on Saddleback were great, very friendly people)
With a long way to go for the day, we headed over to The Horn and reached the summit around 3:25pm. The views on both peaks were great. The larger packs were working like sails and we were being blown around quite a bit, so we didn't spend too much time on the Horn summit.
We quickly headed off the Horn peak, and followed the trail off the summit until we basically lost the trail. We spent some time looking for the trail, backtracked to the last cairn, and looked around with no success at finding the trail. With map and compass in hand there was no doubt where we needed to go, so we headed in the direction of the ridge below Saddleback Junior where we knew we would come up with the trail. On the way the snow was very deep, and thus the going was way too slow.
With the sun near the point of going down, and the light decreasing we decided that we weren't going to make it to the Poplar Ridge shelter this evening, so we found a place on the side of the mountain where we could dig out a space for the tent. We cut out and stomped on a place for the tent, and built a makeshift kitchen. We cooked snow for water and had some hot drinks, started dinner, and put up the tent.
When the sun set, it was interesting how dark it was out (no moon because of the eclipse. We were able to see the moon at various eclipse stages through the clouds. We crashed after dinner at around 9pm-ish. A little rain and snow came down throughout the evening.
The next morning, we made the decision not to go on based on how deep the snow was. though the photos don't show it, we were sinking a lot with our packs on, and thus it was doubtful that we would make the distance we were looking to make over the next 3 days. Thus we packed up camp and headed back to Saddleback. On the way back in the col between the mountains we came to some tracks that looked like some kind of cat.
We got back to the warming hut and heated up our chili (our planned 2nd night dinner) in the available microwave. Felt like cheating (as did the wood stove), but it was the thing to do in the warming hut. We got back down to the car and headed to Sugarloaf to pick up the 2nd car. Along the way in Stratton I stopped to take a photo of a moose.
All in all it was a nice trip, though shorter than we had planned.
Photos here:
http://sopomedia.com/trips/2007/Saddleback-Horn/index.html
