crazymama
New member
We were an enthusiastic foursome when we set off from the Upperworks trailhead Friday morning (me, Daxs, SherpaKroto, and ADK4487), even though there was a soft rain falling. We passed through Flowed Lands, and headed up Herbert Brook to the summit of Marshall. The beauty of the brook almost made up for the continuing rain. We hiked onward through the continuing rain along the Opalescent River. It too was beautiful, but by now we were tired, soaked to the bone, and ready to get to the Feldspar Lean-to. I stopped trying to avoid the mud holes, because by now it made no difference. We were very happy to see the lean-to after 11 hours of hiking in the rain. There were already 3 people in the lean-to, so Daxs and I pitched a tent across the brook that night.
The next morning we saw the sun. Warren joined the party that morning too. Dax and I, along with Michel (who joined us at the lean-to the night before) set off for Cliff. We found the herd path off of the Redfield path, after a little hunting around (the path had a log across it which confused us, but it is marked with a piece of green surveyors tape—it quickly leads to a bog with rotten corduroy). Basically the “trail” up Cliff is a bog/stream, followed by blow down, followed by a rock face, followed by blow down. It was something like an obstacle course, but we had fun with it. The summit has a sign, and actually has some great views. We made it back to the lean-to before the rain started up again.
The sun came out again Sunday morning. Warren headed back to the city. The rest of us took off toward different peaks. My plan was to reach the summits of Gray and Skylight (to be my 30th and 31st peaks). I went solo this day. The walk up to Lake Tear of the Clouds was very pleasant with the morning sun filtering through the trees. I found the cairn in the brook just before the Lake, and crossed over to the herd path to Gray. It is a very wooded path for the most part. I saw Pin Pin (but didn’t know it at the time) who was coming down the mountain. I met Porky (another VFTTer) at the summit. I was happy to see the sign at the top, and hopped up on the nearby boulder for a view. You could see for miles. I considered taking the herd path to Marcy from the summit of Gray, but Marcy looked like a giant compared to Gray, and I decided to save Marcy for another day. It was then back down, and along the shore of Lake Tear to four corners, a route I had never taken before. The views of Marcy along the way were spectacular. The path up Skylight is relatively exposed, pretty much a straight rocky path up the mountain, fairly quick and easy. The summit was magical. I had it all to myself. The bald rocky summit was huge, flat, with cairns scattered all around, with one huge cairn in the middle. I almost forgot to bring a pebble to contribute to the big cairn. (Someone must have forgotten that day, as we DID have rain that evening). Anyway, I have now decided that Skylight is my favorite mountain. It made a big impression on me.
We had a nice little happy hour at the lean-to that evening, inventing various backpacking cocktails including orange Crystal Light with Bourbon, Fruit Punch Gatorade with rum, raspberry vodka (straight). We had already polished off the great wine that Ed (ADK4487) carried in. The rain started up again, and we settled into our sleeping bags when a dripping wet Arm appeared out of the darkness to join our party.
Alas, Monday was the day for me, Daxs, and ADK4487 to hike out. We said goodbye to SherpaKroto and Arm and hit the trail. The trails were much muddier than when we hiked in, from the 3 previous days of rain. But the sun was again shining. We hiked the 8 miles back to the car, and took time to have a post-hike celebration in the parking lot with cold beer and munchies, compliments of Ed. Despite the recurrent rain, had a great time with a great bunch of people. Hope to hike with each of them again.
P.S. We didn’t have problems with bears (all of our food was in bear canisters, except for one night that Ed accidentally left his salami hanging over Sherpa’s head in the lean-to). However, our tenting neighbors at Feldspar weren’t so lucky—lost half their food from a bear bag Sunday night. Also got a report that half the bags on the cable at Lake Colden were lost to bears on Saturday night. Would definitely recommend bringing a bear canister, as it seems that you can no longer rely on a bear bag.
The next morning we saw the sun. Warren joined the party that morning too. Dax and I, along with Michel (who joined us at the lean-to the night before) set off for Cliff. We found the herd path off of the Redfield path, after a little hunting around (the path had a log across it which confused us, but it is marked with a piece of green surveyors tape—it quickly leads to a bog with rotten corduroy). Basically the “trail” up Cliff is a bog/stream, followed by blow down, followed by a rock face, followed by blow down. It was something like an obstacle course, but we had fun with it. The summit has a sign, and actually has some great views. We made it back to the lean-to before the rain started up again.
The sun came out again Sunday morning. Warren headed back to the city. The rest of us took off toward different peaks. My plan was to reach the summits of Gray and Skylight (to be my 30th and 31st peaks). I went solo this day. The walk up to Lake Tear of the Clouds was very pleasant with the morning sun filtering through the trees. I found the cairn in the brook just before the Lake, and crossed over to the herd path to Gray. It is a very wooded path for the most part. I saw Pin Pin (but didn’t know it at the time) who was coming down the mountain. I met Porky (another VFTTer) at the summit. I was happy to see the sign at the top, and hopped up on the nearby boulder for a view. You could see for miles. I considered taking the herd path to Marcy from the summit of Gray, but Marcy looked like a giant compared to Gray, and I decided to save Marcy for another day. It was then back down, and along the shore of Lake Tear to four corners, a route I had never taken before. The views of Marcy along the way were spectacular. The path up Skylight is relatively exposed, pretty much a straight rocky path up the mountain, fairly quick and easy. The summit was magical. I had it all to myself. The bald rocky summit was huge, flat, with cairns scattered all around, with one huge cairn in the middle. I almost forgot to bring a pebble to contribute to the big cairn. (Someone must have forgotten that day, as we DID have rain that evening). Anyway, I have now decided that Skylight is my favorite mountain. It made a big impression on me.
We had a nice little happy hour at the lean-to that evening, inventing various backpacking cocktails including orange Crystal Light with Bourbon, Fruit Punch Gatorade with rum, raspberry vodka (straight). We had already polished off the great wine that Ed (ADK4487) carried in. The rain started up again, and we settled into our sleeping bags when a dripping wet Arm appeared out of the darkness to join our party.
Alas, Monday was the day for me, Daxs, and ADK4487 to hike out. We said goodbye to SherpaKroto and Arm and hit the trail. The trails were much muddier than when we hiked in, from the 3 previous days of rain. But the sun was again shining. We hiked the 8 miles back to the car, and took time to have a post-hike celebration in the parking lot with cold beer and munchies, compliments of Ed. Despite the recurrent rain, had a great time with a great bunch of people. Hope to hike with each of them again.
P.S. We didn’t have problems with bears (all of our food was in bear canisters, except for one night that Ed accidentally left his salami hanging over Sherpa’s head in the lean-to). However, our tenting neighbors at Feldspar weren’t so lucky—lost half their food from a bear bag Sunday night. Also got a report that half the bags on the cable at Lake Colden were lost to bears on Saturday night. Would definitely recommend bringing a bear canister, as it seems that you can no longer rely on a bear bag.
We managed to miss the T-Storms and saw the Cloudsplitter in action - awesome.
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