Bombadil
Active member
2-10-13
We were going to park at the end of W Kingsfield Rd but a resident told us Rapid Stream Rd was plowed to nearly the washed out bridges so we parked in the driveway of the last house on the road. The homeowner was outside and kindly let us park there. We walked the snowmobile trail to the new summer trailhead and took a left and had no difficulty with the stream crossings. At the fork on the other side of the 2 big crossings one bears right to reach the signed trailhead after a 10-15 minute walk. It looked like several trail relocations have taken place since I last had been up there and the trail is well blazed now. Some blowdowns fell into the trail at low elevations and there's a good number of saplings leaning over the trail as well. There was surprisingly little snow (maybe 5-10" below 2k) at low elevations but knee deep snow higher up on top of an icy hard surface. At 3400 when you pop out onto the talus field all the new snow has been blown away and for the most part did not collect on the old surface. We stayed on the old surface though as there were numerous large unstable windslabs around the small trees but they could easily be avoided. We used (and only carried) snowshoes, though one needs to be careful on the talus fields--a slip on the super firm snow/ice would not be good. One heck of a day with blue skies, moderate temps, and calm winds. Thanks to Jason for the help with trailbreaking. On the way back the path from the signed trailhead to the last driveway on Rapid Stream Rd was packed by snowmobiles. They went straight across the ice bridges so we followed their route over our more conservative route further downstream.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
We were going to park at the end of W Kingsfield Rd but a resident told us Rapid Stream Rd was plowed to nearly the washed out bridges so we parked in the driveway of the last house on the road. The homeowner was outside and kindly let us park there. We walked the snowmobile trail to the new summer trailhead and took a left and had no difficulty with the stream crossings. At the fork on the other side of the 2 big crossings one bears right to reach the signed trailhead after a 10-15 minute walk. It looked like several trail relocations have taken place since I last had been up there and the trail is well blazed now. Some blowdowns fell into the trail at low elevations and there's a good number of saplings leaning over the trail as well. There was surprisingly little snow (maybe 5-10" below 2k) at low elevations but knee deep snow higher up on top of an icy hard surface. At 3400 when you pop out onto the talus field all the new snow has been blown away and for the most part did not collect on the old surface. We stayed on the old surface though as there were numerous large unstable windslabs around the small trees but they could easily be avoided. We used (and only carried) snowshoes, though one needs to be careful on the talus fields--a slip on the super firm snow/ice would not be good. One heck of a day with blue skies, moderate temps, and calm winds. Thanks to Jason for the help with trailbreaking. On the way back the path from the signed trailhead to the last driveway on Rapid Stream Rd was packed by snowmobiles. They went straight across the ice bridges so we followed their route over our more conservative route further downstream.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
