alexmtn
Member
Getting a 7:30 start, nine of us headed into the woods from Little River Road on a trip to visit Hale - and if time and interest, S. Hale as well. The weather was mostly cloudy, with temps in the 20s and low 30s. The ground was frozen in spots, and thawing in spots. At altitude in sheltered areas, there was a light coating of snow to start, building to 6" or right below the summit. Absent any obvious tracks, the WF trail was still easy to connect with - and once on that trail, we could see that another hiker had visited quite recently. Some of us donned microspikes, and some bare booted. There were a number of icy rocks and mini skating rinks that the bare booters had to negotiate with care. Likely because the snow was limited, the well-indented trail was very easy to follow. There were were several great forest scenes on the way up - and at a leisurely pace, we summitted at 10:30.
Nice forest scene
Hale summit
The summit was quite breezy, so we didn't stay long after layering up. Apart from the usual summit protocols, the main order of business was to decide on our next step. Five of us were eager to head on to S. Hale, and three opted to head back down the way we came. All capable hikers with appropriate gear, and with our route blatantly broken into the snow, everyone was fine with the threesome retracing our steps back to the cars on their own.
Northern bump, as viewed from our bushwhack starting point
The remaining five of us zipped over to the col bog on Lend-a-Hand and began our bushwhack to South Hale. We followed a bearing almost straight to the official summit, which meant skirting the western side of the mountain's northern bump. We adjusted sideways as needed to minimize the impact of greetings by several spruce and stick forests. The majority of the route, however - and especially the finish on the main summit - was mostly open woods. Our group was endowed with several very experienced outdoor folks including myself, earlylite, pedxing and Loki, but one of us was new to this sort of bushwhacking and we stopped a number of times and devoted as much time as we could afford to go over what we were doing and why - culminating in another quite leisurely pace. We reached the canister at 1:10pm and celebrated over summit cookies and water replenishment.
South Hale summit - please find my pen!
Next time I'm there, I think I'll try heading right over the top of the first bump - once in sight of its reaches up to our left, the woods seemed better than they were down on the side. Also next time I'm there, I'll look for my black Fisher Space Pen, which I managed to drop on the summit. I tried in vain to find it - it must have slipped straight into the snow after I made my time notations. Next time anyone's there after the snow, please do give it look! I seem to be maintaining roughly a 1-pen-donation-per-year pace - and annoyingly, the cartridges last much longer than that.
View south from Hale's flank - see Zealand back there?
On multiple bearings to avoid challenging bogs and drainages, we headed down relatively directly to the North Twin Trail - hitting the river shortly south of the North Twin Trail's "last" (southernmost) stream crossing at 3:10, and were out by 4:35. Through the trees along the descent, there were tantalizing views of the Twins, and even Zealand at one point. All in all, a fun and satisfying outing in great company, and likely the last opportunity we'll have this season to hike with minimal snow.
Little River tributary
Alex
Nice forest scene
Hale summit
The summit was quite breezy, so we didn't stay long after layering up. Apart from the usual summit protocols, the main order of business was to decide on our next step. Five of us were eager to head on to S. Hale, and three opted to head back down the way we came. All capable hikers with appropriate gear, and with our route blatantly broken into the snow, everyone was fine with the threesome retracing our steps back to the cars on their own.
Northern bump, as viewed from our bushwhack starting point
The remaining five of us zipped over to the col bog on Lend-a-Hand and began our bushwhack to South Hale. We followed a bearing almost straight to the official summit, which meant skirting the western side of the mountain's northern bump. We adjusted sideways as needed to minimize the impact of greetings by several spruce and stick forests. The majority of the route, however - and especially the finish on the main summit - was mostly open woods. Our group was endowed with several very experienced outdoor folks including myself, earlylite, pedxing and Loki, but one of us was new to this sort of bushwhacking and we stopped a number of times and devoted as much time as we could afford to go over what we were doing and why - culminating in another quite leisurely pace. We reached the canister at 1:10pm and celebrated over summit cookies and water replenishment.
South Hale summit - please find my pen!
Next time I'm there, I think I'll try heading right over the top of the first bump - once in sight of its reaches up to our left, the woods seemed better than they were down on the side. Also next time I'm there, I'll look for my black Fisher Space Pen, which I managed to drop on the summit. I tried in vain to find it - it must have slipped straight into the snow after I made my time notations. Next time anyone's there after the snow, please do give it look! I seem to be maintaining roughly a 1-pen-donation-per-year pace - and annoyingly, the cartridges last much longer than that.
View south from Hale's flank - see Zealand back there?
On multiple bearings to avoid challenging bogs and drainages, we headed down relatively directly to the North Twin Trail - hitting the river shortly south of the North Twin Trail's "last" (southernmost) stream crossing at 3:10, and were out by 4:35. Through the trees along the descent, there were tantalizing views of the Twins, and even Zealand at one point. All in all, a fun and satisfying outing in great company, and likely the last opportunity we'll have this season to hike with minimal snow.
Little River tributary
Alex
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