sapblatt
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- Oct 22, 2004
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Met up with LarryD at 5:30 in Conway with the idea of meeting Rols, Ryan and Squinty Ken for a winter attempt on Isolation. Well, my car had other ideas and would not get up to the Rocky Branch Trailhead - hikers should have 4WD - oh well...
After driving and skidding around for a couple of hours we finally found a place that was plowed enough to park - the road at Ferncroft - not the lot, but the road. Larry and I suited up and decided to do something short as it was know already 9am. We decided to make a loop out of the Kelley, Lawrence and Old Mast Trails - a nice loop through Paugus Pass.
The new snow was wonderful, but it seemed like forever since I have snowshoed. Larry and I were certainly feeling it. This trail is just so beautiful and not often travelled. It follows a stream bed and goes by some very interesting rock formations that were formed in the last ice age (or so I have read.) There are some very serious blowdowns - over two feet in diameter - but most of them were easily negotiable - there was one tricky one, but too tough.
There is one very steep pitch of about 100 yards as the trail leaves the river for the last time. At this point we could not believe we had not made it to the Lawrence/Oliverian Brook junction - we were moving slowly throuogh the snow. We decided that we would stop at noon even is we did not reach the junction. Right at noon we hit the Wilderness Boundary and had lunch and checked the map - apparently we were only about 100 yards from the junction. We ate, drank and moved on...the three hours up, and half hour lunch led to the easy part of the day - it only took us 60-70 minutes to get down the Old Mast Interstate Highway.
Real glad we got out - real sorry we did not make it up the Rocky Branch Trailhead, but I could imagine that very well of been a bear of hike to break trail on all day. Hope Rols and company did OK. Anbther great day out with Larry - thanks for the post hike beer and pre hike donuts,
Nice meeting Jazzbo and friend before the hike!
PICTURES HERE
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaNns
My pop up blocker, even when off is preventing me from putting in a link
- some of these are real cool - fresh snow makes for nice pics!
After driving and skidding around for a couple of hours we finally found a place that was plowed enough to park - the road at Ferncroft - not the lot, but the road. Larry and I suited up and decided to do something short as it was know already 9am. We decided to make a loop out of the Kelley, Lawrence and Old Mast Trails - a nice loop through Paugus Pass.
The new snow was wonderful, but it seemed like forever since I have snowshoed. Larry and I were certainly feeling it. This trail is just so beautiful and not often travelled. It follows a stream bed and goes by some very interesting rock formations that were formed in the last ice age (or so I have read.) There are some very serious blowdowns - over two feet in diameter - but most of them were easily negotiable - there was one tricky one, but too tough.
There is one very steep pitch of about 100 yards as the trail leaves the river for the last time. At this point we could not believe we had not made it to the Lawrence/Oliverian Brook junction - we were moving slowly throuogh the snow. We decided that we would stop at noon even is we did not reach the junction. Right at noon we hit the Wilderness Boundary and had lunch and checked the map - apparently we were only about 100 yards from the junction. We ate, drank and moved on...the three hours up, and half hour lunch led to the easy part of the day - it only took us 60-70 minutes to get down the Old Mast Interstate Highway.
Real glad we got out - real sorry we did not make it up the Rocky Branch Trailhead, but I could imagine that very well of been a bear of hike to break trail on all day. Hope Rols and company did OK. Anbther great day out with Larry - thanks for the post hike beer and pre hike donuts,
Nice meeting Jazzbo and friend before the hike!
PICTURES HERE
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaNns
My pop up blocker, even when off is preventing me from putting in a link
- some of these are real cool - fresh snow makes for nice pics!