Tom Rankin
Well-known member
I played hooky from work and went with Paula to Big Hollow Road, where we met her friend Judy. We started at about 9:20 after Judy struggled with her new EVOs with the new bindings. After watching the struggle, I will keep my old ones as long as possible! 
We noticed snowmobile tracks along the trail down low coming from private property. Not sure they are allowed, but...
The hike progressed at a modest pace, as Paula was fighting off the end of the flu. There was a dusting of new snow over the trail. No one had signed in for BD and TC for almost 2 weeks, so we were not hopeful about a broken trail, but it turned out to have been fairly well stomped down all the way to TC and beyond, as far as I could tell. Perhaps someone came over from the other side?
At the start of the hike, there were coyote tracks, but they did not seem to be peakbaggers. We flushed a grouse that flew right in front of my face! The snowshoe hares were out in force! I have never seen so many fresh tracks! We also sighted the all-too-common ****-barebootus tracks!
We had snow flurries most of the day and the views were limited. We could see Black Head, Black Dome, and Thomas Cole from time to time, but that was about it.
The Butt sliding index was a fairly acceptable 7 out of 10 in a few spots.
Snowshoes were worn all day by the 3 of us. Almost no icy spots to speak of. A lot of snow off trail (up to 3'), and a nasty hard crust about a foot under the top layer.
Paula's GPS said 6.94 miles (compared to about 6.4 by the signs), which we covered in 5.5 hours. Unfortunately, Cave Mountain Brewery was not open till 4!
We noticed snowmobile tracks along the trail down low coming from private property. Not sure they are allowed, but...
The hike progressed at a modest pace, as Paula was fighting off the end of the flu. There was a dusting of new snow over the trail. No one had signed in for BD and TC for almost 2 weeks, so we were not hopeful about a broken trail, but it turned out to have been fairly well stomped down all the way to TC and beyond, as far as I could tell. Perhaps someone came over from the other side?
At the start of the hike, there were coyote tracks, but they did not seem to be peakbaggers.
We flushed a grouse that flew right in front of my face! The snowshoe hares were out in force! I have never seen so many fresh tracks! We also sighted the all-too-common ****-barebootus tracks! We had snow flurries most of the day and the views were limited. We could see Black Head, Black Dome, and Thomas Cole from time to time, but that was about it.
The Butt sliding index was a fairly acceptable 7 out of 10 in a few spots.
Snowshoes were worn all day by the 3 of us. Almost no icy spots to speak of. A lot of snow off trail (up to 3'), and a nasty hard crust about a foot under the top layer.
Paula's GPS said 6.94 miles (compared to about 6.4 by the signs), which we covered in 5.5 hours. Unfortunately, Cave Mountain Brewery was not open till 4!
