Guinness
Active member
This day, 2/24, our group of 5 had a goal of visiting the Wolfjaws and Armstrong ascending the Wedge Brook Trail and returning the Beaver Meadows Trail. Success depended on the trail conditions and today were to be challenged. We left the AMR Registration point at 6:26 am and quickly were at the bridge to start our trip. There was an attempt to break out the trail by a previous group but only as far as the Canyon Bridge. Once we joined the West River Trail, we had to break all the way to the WolfJaws.
Everyone took turns in breaking trail and at times it was very slow going. I made the comment that the snow seamed like walking on ball bearings as we fought for every inch. When we turned off the West River Trail onto the Wedge Brook Trail a brief comment was made how Noonmark was still serving breakfast, silence swept over everyone and no words were spoken as we kept going.
It was slow due to the depth we were plowing through. It was not possible to lift your shoes out of the snow that left you with fighting through the crust and poor traction. We stayed on route with only one minor spur where we missed a left turn. We marked the errant route with crossed branches and continued up. At the split to Upper and Lower Wolfjaws, one member of our group decided to tackle Upper Wolfjaw alone. It took him 2 hours to ascend and return to the junction. He did not have any relief going up UWJ as he had to break trail the entire distance. The remaining four went right for Lower Wolfjaw. At the junction with the Range Trail, we found a broken trail to LWJ. It took us 7 hours to reach the summit of LWJ and less than 3 hours back to the cars.
The Wedge Brook Trail and both Wolfjaws are now open and should consolidate over the couple of days. Our group consisted of Algonquin Bob, Shin, RTSpoons (AdkHighpeaks), Bonnie and myself, Guinness. Great trip to everyone you did a hell of a job!
Ed
Everyone took turns in breaking trail and at times it was very slow going. I made the comment that the snow seamed like walking on ball bearings as we fought for every inch. When we turned off the West River Trail onto the Wedge Brook Trail a brief comment was made how Noonmark was still serving breakfast, silence swept over everyone and no words were spoken as we kept going.
It was slow due to the depth we were plowing through. It was not possible to lift your shoes out of the snow that left you with fighting through the crust and poor traction. We stayed on route with only one minor spur where we missed a left turn. We marked the errant route with crossed branches and continued up. At the split to Upper and Lower Wolfjaws, one member of our group decided to tackle Upper Wolfjaw alone. It took him 2 hours to ascend and return to the junction. He did not have any relief going up UWJ as he had to break trail the entire distance. The remaining four went right for Lower Wolfjaw. At the junction with the Range Trail, we found a broken trail to LWJ. It took us 7 hours to reach the summit of LWJ and less than 3 hours back to the cars.
The Wedge Brook Trail and both Wolfjaws are now open and should consolidate over the couple of days. Our group consisted of Algonquin Bob, Shin, RTSpoons (AdkHighpeaks), Bonnie and myself, Guinness. Great trip to everyone you did a hell of a job!
Ed
