Sunshine Chris
New member
NH Winter 4K- Mt. Waumbek
Elevation- 2850' - includes elevation gain on way up, across ridge, coming back and 200' of gain walking road to summer trail-head
Hiking Partners-- Dave Bear, Thor, Sunshine Chris
Mileage- 8.0 miles including the road walk
Link to Photos for the day
http://s1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/CrystalCreek7760/Mt Waumbek with Dave on 1-12-13/
So the plan went from a solo hike to Moose (would have seen Trish and gang) to Dave Bear calling to seeing what I was up to Saturday and plans changing to Mt. Waumbek which we both needed as did Thor (Dave's Norwegian Elk-hound). We met at the park and ride at 7:00 am and I quickly moved my gear to his vehicle under icy footing. We got to the Trail-head and were the first ones to park in the winter parking area across Rte. 2 from the road heading up to the summer trail start. We got on our boots and gaiters, made final preps, took our start photo and headed up the icy road behind a sander truck
to the summer trail and were off and running at 9:30 am. The trail seemed solid enough so Dave and Thor went with bare boots/pads and I wore my micro-spikes. We had one set of snowshoe tracks ahead of us and after the well Dave let Thor go off leash. We did not run into the attack beagle thank goodness.
We seemed to be working hard this morning trying to gain elevation. I think partly because we were so warm (temps already in mid 30's) and due to the over exertion of last weekend on Liberty and Flume/Flume Slide. We soon ran into a local coming down bare-booting, said a quick good morning and continued on. The trail was firm and well packed out all the way up to the ridge where we turned left toward the west side and headed into the spruce and firs.
Here, the tree branches were heavy laden with quite a bit of snow that had been rained on some and was falling in big chunks randomly as we passed by and raining on us regularly. I broke down and put my shell on to try and stay dry. Dave was nice enough to schedule rest stops where there were no tree branches above us. We ran into the solo hiker coming down on snowshoes- Dave knew him as a grid hiker. We asked him how soft the trail was between summits and he said it was soft and slushy and would be best hiked in snowshoes. We of course had our on board realizing how inevitable it would be to need to use them as the trail softened up. Towards the upper part of our climb a young woman came on by us with no snowshoes on her back and we wondered how she would fair later on as the day warmed up.
We were enjoying our leisurely pace as we continued our climb under raining trees. A few times the branches unloaded their weight just before or after my passing and I would say, "Huh, you missed me again!"
Making the right turn and then the left near the summit we soon found ourselves taking pictures at the chimney near the summit of Mt. Starr King. No views, not surprised though. Continuing on we started out across to Mt. Waumbek, stopping toward the end of the descent to get our snowshoes on. They stayed on throughout the remainder of the day. In no time at all we were atop the summit of Mt. Waumbek and were taking the traditional summit photos.
Dave suggested we go on to the view point on the right a 100 ft. or so down trail. There were again no views for us today. I noticed one track headed towards Middle Weeks though I know from a recent trip report I had read that it was only an attempt.
We turned to head back and ran into first a couple on snowshoes and then a group on 8 or so young folks out bare-booting with no snowshoes on-board. After we passed them we saw a fair amount of post holing and regretted what we knew was going to happen to the trail when they came back down. RRRRRRRRR- why? Got one of our only near summit views for the day on the ridge heading back and a short peak at the sun too.
When we arrived back on Mt. Starr King we stopped to eat a sandwich, I shared some of my beefaroni and Dave shared his Toasted Almond. I changed out my wet base layer and gloves and hat and layered up a bit for the hike out as I was feeling chilled.
When we started down, we made the sharp right turn, went along the ridge to the true summit and shortly after ran into this blowdown in the trail. It had fallen down while we were out at Mt. Waumbek.
The hike out went by quickly and we were soon down to the hardwoods on the ridge where Dave decided to go off trail (4 wheeling on his snowshoes into the deep snow pack). He went down the whole ridge that way enjoying the views off toward the east side while Thor and I stayed on trail.
Back at the well we got Thor on leash and upon reaching the summer trail head we removed our snowshoes and headed down the road to Rte. 2 where we got a nice view of the Presi's on our way to the pool parking lot.
It was a fun and relaxing day with Dave Bear and Thor as always. NH winter # 8 in the books for me while Dave and Thor close in on their final summits to complete their Winter 48 too.
Elevation- 2850' - includes elevation gain on way up, across ridge, coming back and 200' of gain walking road to summer trail-head
Hiking Partners-- Dave Bear, Thor, Sunshine Chris
Mileage- 8.0 miles including the road walk
Link to Photos for the day
http://s1343.photobucket.com/albums/o793/CrystalCreek7760/Mt Waumbek with Dave on 1-12-13/
So the plan went from a solo hike to Moose (would have seen Trish and gang) to Dave Bear calling to seeing what I was up to Saturday and plans changing to Mt. Waumbek which we both needed as did Thor (Dave's Norwegian Elk-hound). We met at the park and ride at 7:00 am and I quickly moved my gear to his vehicle under icy footing. We got to the Trail-head and were the first ones to park in the winter parking area across Rte. 2 from the road heading up to the summer trail start. We got on our boots and gaiters, made final preps, took our start photo and headed up the icy road behind a sander truck
to the summer trail and were off and running at 9:30 am. The trail seemed solid enough so Dave and Thor went with bare boots/pads and I wore my micro-spikes. We had one set of snowshoe tracks ahead of us and after the well Dave let Thor go off leash. We did not run into the attack beagle thank goodness. We seemed to be working hard this morning trying to gain elevation. I think partly because we were so warm (temps already in mid 30's) and due to the over exertion of last weekend on Liberty and Flume/Flume Slide. We soon ran into a local coming down bare-booting, said a quick good morning and continued on. The trail was firm and well packed out all the way up to the ridge where we turned left toward the west side and headed into the spruce and firs.
Here, the tree branches were heavy laden with quite a bit of snow that had been rained on some and was falling in big chunks randomly as we passed by and raining on us regularly. I broke down and put my shell on to try and stay dry. Dave was nice enough to schedule rest stops where there were no tree branches above us. We ran into the solo hiker coming down on snowshoes- Dave knew him as a grid hiker. We asked him how soft the trail was between summits and he said it was soft and slushy and would be best hiked in snowshoes. We of course had our on board realizing how inevitable it would be to need to use them as the trail softened up. Towards the upper part of our climb a young woman came on by us with no snowshoes on her back and we wondered how she would fair later on as the day warmed up.
We were enjoying our leisurely pace as we continued our climb under raining trees. A few times the branches unloaded their weight just before or after my passing and I would say, "Huh, you missed me again!"
Making the right turn and then the left near the summit we soon found ourselves taking pictures at the chimney near the summit of Mt. Starr King. No views, not surprised though. Continuing on we started out across to Mt. Waumbek, stopping toward the end of the descent to get our snowshoes on. They stayed on throughout the remainder of the day. In no time at all we were atop the summit of Mt. Waumbek and were taking the traditional summit photos.
Dave suggested we go on to the view point on the right a 100 ft. or so down trail. There were again no views for us today. I noticed one track headed towards Middle Weeks though I know from a recent trip report I had read that it was only an attempt.
We turned to head back and ran into first a couple on snowshoes and then a group on 8 or so young folks out bare-booting with no snowshoes on-board. After we passed them we saw a fair amount of post holing and regretted what we knew was going to happen to the trail when they came back down. RRRRRRRRR- why? Got one of our only near summit views for the day on the ridge heading back and a short peak at the sun too.
When we arrived back on Mt. Starr King we stopped to eat a sandwich, I shared some of my beefaroni and Dave shared his Toasted Almond. I changed out my wet base layer and gloves and hat and layered up a bit for the hike out as I was feeling chilled.
When we started down, we made the sharp right turn, went along the ridge to the true summit and shortly after ran into this blowdown in the trail. It had fallen down while we were out at Mt. Waumbek.
The hike out went by quickly and we were soon down to the hardwoods on the ridge where Dave decided to go off trail (4 wheeling on his snowshoes into the deep snow pack). He went down the whole ridge that way enjoying the views off toward the east side while Thor and I stayed on trail.
Back at the well we got Thor on leash and upon reaching the summer trail head we removed our snowshoes and headed down the road to Rte. 2 where we got a nice view of the Presi's on our way to the pool parking lot.
It was a fun and relaxing day with Dave Bear and Thor as always. NH winter # 8 in the books for me while Dave and Thor close in on their final summits to complete their Winter 48 too.
