FreightTrain
New member
My hike a month group is still not back to full strength, but Eric and I thought Garfield would be a good one to cross off the list. When we arrived at the parking area we could see that the road had not been broken out which more than likely meant the trail was not broken out either. Fortunately, a group of three started out ahead of us. We were dragging sleds to base camp and even though the sleds plowed the trail a little wider, it was good to have it broken out somewhat. We were passed by a couple of hikers about 1/2 mile down the road. We dragged the sleds a short distance off the road, set up base camp and headed for the trail.
The five hikers ahead of us had a well defined trail beaten down. There was about 18 inches of fresh snow at the beginning of the trail. This amount increased with the elevation gain. The begiining of the trail went along fairly easy. It was a beutiful day for hiking. The temperature was good and the skies were blue. We would finally get good views after so many recent white out summits. We were making good time when we met the 5 hikers that were ahead of us on their way down. Breaking trail had exhausted their group. We continued on ignorant to the unbroken trail ahead of us.
In about 10 minutes we became fully aware of the effort required. More than two people are required to break out a trail with that much snow on it. The second person still had some work to do, but it was so much easier being the second guy. The only way I could make progress was to lift each snow shoe and thrust it as far forward as possible beating down the snow with each step. A short rest after 2 or 3 steps was required. After a 100 or so steps it was time to switch the lead. We did not have a change to rest up before it was time to take the lead again. After 4 hours of beating down almost 2 miles of the trail, we were exhausted. With less than 1/2 mile to get to the summit at almost 4:00pm we decided to turn back. That last 1/2 mile would take over an hour and we just did not have it in us.
About 10 minutes back down the trail we met a group of thre going up. Where were they and hour ago? We considered following their group but decided to get back to camp. The 1.5 hour hike down seemed short compared to the 5 hour struggle on the way up. Mike had a fire going at camp and we relaxed knowing our trail breaking efforts would be appreciated by those that would follow. The venison chile was a good finish for the day. The short sled drag down the road on sunday finished off the February hike.
The five hikers ahead of us had a well defined trail beaten down. There was about 18 inches of fresh snow at the beginning of the trail. This amount increased with the elevation gain. The begiining of the trail went along fairly easy. It was a beutiful day for hiking. The temperature was good and the skies were blue. We would finally get good views after so many recent white out summits. We were making good time when we met the 5 hikers that were ahead of us on their way down. Breaking trail had exhausted their group. We continued on ignorant to the unbroken trail ahead of us.
In about 10 minutes we became fully aware of the effort required. More than two people are required to break out a trail with that much snow on it. The second person still had some work to do, but it was so much easier being the second guy. The only way I could make progress was to lift each snow shoe and thrust it as far forward as possible beating down the snow with each step. A short rest after 2 or 3 steps was required. After a 100 or so steps it was time to switch the lead. We did not have a change to rest up before it was time to take the lead again. After 4 hours of beating down almost 2 miles of the trail, we were exhausted. With less than 1/2 mile to get to the summit at almost 4:00pm we decided to turn back. That last 1/2 mile would take over an hour and we just did not have it in us.
About 10 minutes back down the trail we met a group of thre going up. Where were they and hour ago? We considered following their group but decided to get back to camp. The 1.5 hour hike down seemed short compared to the 5 hour struggle on the way up. Mike had a fire going at camp and we relaxed knowing our trail breaking efforts would be appreciated by those that would follow. The venison chile was a good finish for the day. The short sled drag down the road on sunday finished off the February hike.
