Bombadil
Active member
5.11.14
Gale River Loop was still gated so i parked down the road at the Beaver Brook Rest Area. The xc ski trail was very muddy in places, more-so early on. There were some muddy sections along the Gale River Trail but all in all it was in pretty decent shape for this time of year. I hit the first snow around 3000 feet and quickly it transitioned into water flowing over ice. I barebooted it and was able to use a little finesse using rocks and slush to get traction since I didn't want to abuse my microspikes just yet. All my effort to keep my feet reasonably dry was wasted in the area around the junction with Garfield Ridge Trail where I hit half a dozen sections with shin to knee deep slush pools which was deceptively deep and not even close to holding my body weight.
After passing the hut (bare ground) heading up the Frost Trail there was a short section of dry trail but after that snowshoes were helpful for the rotten snow. I elected to stick with snowshoes up and over the twins which was helpful for climbing in the rotten snow. There wasn't much recent activity over to N Twin and snowshoes were definitely the way to go. Rather than face Little River I opted to return the same way. Descending S Twin in snowshoes with all the ice, rotten snow, and rocks on the side of the trail was interesting and required care in a few places.
I came ever so close to turning around after just Galehead given my gentleman start time (3 pm) and the horrendous conditions between 3k and the hut but things were much more consistent at upper elevations and it was a gorgeous day out--good call to keep going in retrospect.
P.S. the hut is open for those interested.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
Gale River Loop was still gated so i parked down the road at the Beaver Brook Rest Area. The xc ski trail was very muddy in places, more-so early on. There were some muddy sections along the Gale River Trail but all in all it was in pretty decent shape for this time of year. I hit the first snow around 3000 feet and quickly it transitioned into water flowing over ice. I barebooted it and was able to use a little finesse using rocks and slush to get traction since I didn't want to abuse my microspikes just yet. All my effort to keep my feet reasonably dry was wasted in the area around the junction with Garfield Ridge Trail where I hit half a dozen sections with shin to knee deep slush pools which was deceptively deep and not even close to holding my body weight.
After passing the hut (bare ground) heading up the Frost Trail there was a short section of dry trail but after that snowshoes were helpful for the rotten snow. I elected to stick with snowshoes up and over the twins which was helpful for climbing in the rotten snow. There wasn't much recent activity over to N Twin and snowshoes were definitely the way to go. Rather than face Little River I opted to return the same way. Descending S Twin in snowshoes with all the ice, rotten snow, and rocks on the side of the trail was interesting and required care in a few places.
I came ever so close to turning around after just Galehead given my gentleman start time (3 pm) and the horrendous conditions between 3k and the hut but things were much more consistent at upper elevations and it was a gorgeous day out--good call to keep going in retrospect.
P.S. the hut is open for those interested.
Pat
pcushing21 at yahoo dot com
