Jay H
New member
After another frigid night at a LT in the Loj, the other two bums.umm, I mean friends, bailed out on hiking this day, as if the weather was too nice than saturday... Sunny skies, calm winds..gee, I rather have overcast skies, blowing snow and 50mph gusts. 
I got dropped off at the Roaring brook trailhead at around 10;30 and checked the trail.. well broken in, knowing that I would only need crampons, I took my snowshoes in my pack to appease the snowshoe rule (is that an eastern high Peaks thing like the no campfire rule??? I know you can have fires in the roaring brook tentsites at the base of the falls because it's not technically in the "eastern high peaks", does the snowshoe rule apply to the same as the campfire rule?). Anyway, I grudingly don my snowshoes on for dead weight and perhaps if I get mugged by somebody, I can under the 'biner holding the tips together, unstrap the top strap of my Gregory Forester, slip it out of a side pocket and scallop the guy with the crampon... Oh, but I digress..
Never having hiked Giant in winter or not, but knowing it's basically a 3000+ft ascent right from the trailhead, I head out... Making good time, I pass a bunch of friendly canadians, in fact, finding a pair of sunglasses on the trail, I picked it up and found the rightful owner right were the trail splits to the campsites at the lower falls and the actual Giant Mt trail leaves. I would pass them later on. I would pass everybody until I got to the junction with the trail from Chapel Pond. Steadily making progress in my crampons. Of course, I failed to mention my camera falling out of my sternum strap and rolling down the hill for about 50ft stopping at the base of a tree before careening into Roaring brook! A quick hike down and back up, saved my G3 from hitting some photographer at the base of the falls... (I'm such a nice guy!)...
Anyway, run into a couple at the summit at about 12:50 and we chat, I notice the lack of wind unlike saturday and the nice views across Route 73 into John's Brook valley..
Big Slide, the Brothers, Colvin, BLake, Dix range... the Great Range... Nice... Still a bit O' trees at the summit rock...
Head back down, fast, I find the group of friendly Canadians at the trail junction and chat again for a bit. Is it another Canadian holiday? Quickly rolling down the trail, I get back to Carol and my car at about 2:30 and enjoy a somewhat melting snickers ice cream brownie sandwich... yum!
I didn't bother going out to RPR, although there was snowshoe tracks from the Giant trail, because I figure I can always go back and do RPR from New Russia. I want to do the traverse anyway so no need to do RPR today...
I took a bit more pictures today than saturday, online tonight!
Jay
I got dropped off at the Roaring brook trailhead at around 10;30 and checked the trail.. well broken in, knowing that I would only need crampons, I took my snowshoes in my pack to appease the snowshoe rule (is that an eastern high Peaks thing like the no campfire rule??? I know you can have fires in the roaring brook tentsites at the base of the falls because it's not technically in the "eastern high peaks", does the snowshoe rule apply to the same as the campfire rule?). Anyway, I grudingly don my snowshoes on for dead weight and perhaps if I get mugged by somebody, I can under the 'biner holding the tips together, unstrap the top strap of my Gregory Forester, slip it out of a side pocket and scallop the guy with the crampon... Oh, but I digress..
Never having hiked Giant in winter or not, but knowing it's basically a 3000+ft ascent right from the trailhead, I head out... Making good time, I pass a bunch of friendly canadians, in fact, finding a pair of sunglasses on the trail, I picked it up and found the rightful owner right were the trail splits to the campsites at the lower falls and the actual Giant Mt trail leaves. I would pass them later on. I would pass everybody until I got to the junction with the trail from Chapel Pond. Steadily making progress in my crampons. Of course, I failed to mention my camera falling out of my sternum strap and rolling down the hill for about 50ft stopping at the base of a tree before careening into Roaring brook!
A quick hike down and back up, saved my G3 from hitting some photographer at the base of the falls... (I'm such a nice guy!)... Anyway, run into a couple at the summit at about 12:50 and we chat, I notice the lack of wind unlike saturday and the nice views across Route 73 into John's Brook valley..
Big Slide, the Brothers, Colvin, BLake, Dix range... the Great Range... Nice... Still a bit O' trees at the summit rock...
Head back down, fast, I find the group of friendly Canadians at the trail junction and chat again for a bit. Is it another Canadian holiday?
Quickly rolling down the trail, I get back to Carol and my car at about 2:30 and enjoy a somewhat melting snickers ice cream brownie sandwich... yum! I didn't bother going out to RPR, although there was snowshoe tracks from the Giant trail, because I figure I can always go back and do RPR from New Russia. I want to do the traverse anyway so no need to do RPR today...
I took a bit more pictures today than saturday, online tonight!
Jay
