grouseking
Well-known member
Since a White Mtn hike was out of the question, Mattl and I wanted to do something close to home. Originally the plan was to hike up to Orange Mountain and redline some trails around Mt Cardigan, but when we found out we'd be breaking trail, we decided on Cardigan instead. We could hear the whipping winds above the trees, so it sounded like it would be a fun jaunt.
For some reason I didn't think we'd have to walk any of the road heading into the state park, but we did because it was gated off. The walk wasn't too long, no more than 1/2 mile, but it upset me a little because I don't like walking further than I have to.
Thankfully, the trek up the road was beautiful with light snow falling and occasional sun shinning thru the clouds. Once on the West Ridge trail, we were teased over and over by the sun
but it never truly came out. After hitting the South Ridge trial junction, or mind was made up that summiting Cardigan would be much more fun than breaking trail. So onward we went up the broken West Ridge tr. We saw one hiker down down with major icicles/rime on his beard. Thank god I brought a face mask. He wasn't in the mood to chat and gave us the cold shoulder, so we kept going.
Snow depths were fairly impressive, especially since a lot melted last week. The storm on Friday plus the upslope must have really helped out. My favorite things to look at were the snow and rime covered fir trees . The further up the mountain we traveled, the more rime there was.
Before heading onto the ledges, Matt ate some food, and we tossed on the warmer weather gear. Getting views of all the rime covered trees got my adrenelin flowing.
I took a couple movies heading up to the summit. THey didn't come out too badly, and you can hear the wind whipping me around pretty well. I'd estimate winds were mainly in the 30 mph range, with gusts over 40 at times, because the winds did kind of walk me to different places at times. The wind was creating enough of a chill to actually make the back of my head feel numbingly cold, despite a good hat. It was the first time the back of my head (not the top) had ever been cold. It actually hurt for a minute so I had to turn around and face the wind on order to warm myself up....if that makes any sense...
When we summited we took shelter underneath the fire tower and out of the wind to catch our breaths and warm up. Well actually, Matt was running around in the winds and I was warming up..... I eventually came out and took a bunch of photos although views were limited thanks to the fog and blowing snow. This one of Matt and Firescrew is particularly nice.
After about 10-15 min on the top, it was time to head down. We saw a pretty serious snow shower heading towards us at a fast speed so we figured the winds would erally be kicking up in a few minutes. Here it comes! As the snow shower approached, there were still some views opening up, with the best view over towards the Mt Sunapee ski area. As we neared the trees, the snow shower appeared to be dying a little, but the winds wern't. We could hear the whipping of the winds against the spruce and fir and I was glad to be back below the exposure level. From here on out, light snow fell off an on, making things very picturesque, though occasionally a big gust could be heard amongst the taller trees. We made great time heading back and prob reached the car in half the time it took us to climb. It was an awesome hike on a very wintry day...prob 10 degrees on the summit with 30-40 mph winds, which means a nice wind chill of 10 to 15 below zero. A splendid time was had by all.
We stopped at a great sub/sandwich place on the way back. I asked for a meatball sub, and I got this monster!! There are meatballs in there somewhere, but mainly a bunch of ground beef. It was like an oversized sloppy joe, but much tastier. And yes, I ate almost all of it. Burp...
Two sets of pictures
Matts pics My pics
grouseking
For some reason I didn't think we'd have to walk any of the road heading into the state park, but we did because it was gated off. The walk wasn't too long, no more than 1/2 mile, but it upset me a little because I don't like walking further than I have to.
Thankfully, the trek up the road was beautiful with light snow falling and occasional sun shinning thru the clouds. Once on the West Ridge trail, we were teased over and over by the sunbut it never truly came out. After hitting the South Ridge trial junction, or mind was made up that summiting Cardigan would be much more fun than breaking trail. So onward we went up the broken West Ridge tr. We saw one hiker down down with major icicles/rime on his beard. Thank god I brought a face mask.
He wasn't in the mood to chat and gave us the cold shoulder, so we kept going. Snow depths were fairly impressive, especially since a lot melted last week. The storm on Friday plus the upslope must have really helped out. My favorite things to look at were the snow and rime covered fir trees . The further up the mountain we traveled, the more rime there was.
Before heading onto the ledges, Matt ate some food, and we tossed on the warmer weather gear. Getting views of all the rime covered trees got my adrenelin flowing.
I took a couple movies heading up to the summit. THey didn't come out too badly, and you can hear the wind whipping me around pretty well. I'd estimate winds were mainly in the 30 mph range, with gusts over 40 at times, because the winds did kind of walk me to different places at times. The wind was creating enough of a chill to actually make the back of my head feel numbingly cold, despite a good hat. It was the first time the back of my head (not the top) had ever been cold. It actually hurt for a minute so I had to turn around and face the wind on order to warm myself up....if that makes any sense...
When we summited we took shelter underneath the fire tower and out of the wind to catch our breaths and warm up. Well actually, Matt was running around in the winds and I was warming up.....
I eventually came out and took a bunch of photos although views were limited thanks to the fog and blowing snow. This one of Matt and Firescrew is particularly nice.After about 10-15 min on the top, it was time to head down. We saw a pretty serious snow shower heading towards us at a fast speed so we figured the winds would erally be kicking up in a few minutes. Here it comes! As the snow shower approached, there were still some views opening up, with the best view over towards the Mt Sunapee ski area. As we neared the trees, the snow shower appeared to be dying a little, but the winds wern't. We could hear the whipping of the winds against the spruce and fir and I was glad to be back below the exposure level. From here on out, light snow fell off an on, making things very picturesque, though occasionally a big gust could be heard amongst the taller trees. We made great time heading back and prob reached the car in half the time it took us to climb. It was an awesome hike on a very wintry day...prob 10 degrees on the summit with 30-40 mph winds, which means a nice wind chill of 10 to 15 below zero. A splendid time was had by all.
We stopped at a great sub/sandwich place on the way back. I asked for a meatball sub, and I got this monster!! There are meatballs in there somewhere, but mainly a bunch of ground beef. It was like an oversized sloppy joe, but much tastier. And yes, I ate almost all of it. Burp...
Two sets of pictures
Matts pics My pics
grouseking
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