Jazzbo
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- Jan 1, 2005
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We drove along Welton Falls Road to dope out where old Dicey Road splits off to Welton Falls using some old maps downloaded from UNH antique map site. We’ll return to this area some time after snow is gone. The roads in and around Cardigan are in tough shape. The road agent has been through and filled in most of the grossest washouts but the roads are still pretty rough shape. Can't imagine what these washouts must have looked like. I was happy to have Bill driving his 4-wheel drive Toyota and not my Taurus. We arrived at Cardigan where a workshop and a wedding was going on. It was hard finding a place to park. We started hiking at 10:00. On account of the deep heavy wet we ruled out our original plan to go to Welton Falls and bushwhack up Back 80 Trail region.
We decided to head up Firescrew and decide there whether to descend Mowglis Trail to Cilley Cave and return via Back 80. On a whim we donned out snow shoes and ascended via Duke’s ski trail which was snow covered. The snow was wet and heavy and got deeper as we gained elevation. Although the snow was never more than 18", trail breaking was tiring. We reached junction with the Manning Trail on the lower ledges of Firescrew. The day was sunny and clear and visibility was great. We could see snow capped Franconia Ridge and Mt Washington.
The chimney leading to upper ledges of Firescrew was snowy rather than icy and we kickstepped our way up it. We were the first hikers to come this way since the last snowfall. A party of 4 overtook us just before reaching Firescrew where we sat down to eat lunch. A party of 2 + a dog came up Mowglis trail from the north. They told us the Mowglis Trail had really been hammered by the recent storms and there was huge numbers of blowdowns. This report and trail breaking made us decide to take the traditional route to Cardigan and descend to the south.
The saddle was mostly covered with snow so we kept our snowshoes on all the way to Cardigan summit. We took another long break at the summit to take in the splendid views. There were many parties who had come up the Clark and from the state park to the west. We saw many spruce trees freshly snapped mid trunk by the storms last week on the Clark Trail just below the ranger cabin. Surprisingly we saw hardly any blowdowns below PJ ledge. The snow on the Clark Trail was getting very wet and slippery. If the warm weather keeps up this snow won’t be around for long. Melting was starting to happen big time. Could make for some very wet conditions in the next few weeks here.
All in all it was a beautiful day to spend so much time above treeline. Snow shoes turned out to be a very good idea. Would have been nice to have had sunblocker. I got well sunburned.
Pics are here.
We decided to head up Firescrew and decide there whether to descend Mowglis Trail to Cilley Cave and return via Back 80. On a whim we donned out snow shoes and ascended via Duke’s ski trail which was snow covered. The snow was wet and heavy and got deeper as we gained elevation. Although the snow was never more than 18", trail breaking was tiring. We reached junction with the Manning Trail on the lower ledges of Firescrew. The day was sunny and clear and visibility was great. We could see snow capped Franconia Ridge and Mt Washington.
The chimney leading to upper ledges of Firescrew was snowy rather than icy and we kickstepped our way up it. We were the first hikers to come this way since the last snowfall. A party of 4 overtook us just before reaching Firescrew where we sat down to eat lunch. A party of 2 + a dog came up Mowglis trail from the north. They told us the Mowglis Trail had really been hammered by the recent storms and there was huge numbers of blowdowns. This report and trail breaking made us decide to take the traditional route to Cardigan and descend to the south.
The saddle was mostly covered with snow so we kept our snowshoes on all the way to Cardigan summit. We took another long break at the summit to take in the splendid views. There were many parties who had come up the Clark and from the state park to the west. We saw many spruce trees freshly snapped mid trunk by the storms last week on the Clark Trail just below the ranger cabin. Surprisingly we saw hardly any blowdowns below PJ ledge. The snow on the Clark Trail was getting very wet and slippery. If the warm weather keeps up this snow won’t be around for long. Melting was starting to happen big time. Could make for some very wet conditions in the next few weeks here.
All in all it was a beautiful day to spend so much time above treeline. Snow shoes turned out to be a very good idea. Would have been nice to have had sunblocker. I got well sunburned.
Pics are here.
