JohnL
New member
The a cappella rendition of the Marseilles had a little something extra on it during our Sunday morning drive as we headed northward for our date with the mountain formerly known as Mooshillock. The skies got progressively cloudier the further north we got and by the time we got into Franconia Notch there were flakes of snow dancing toward our windshield.
“Wait ‘til we get above the Notch.”
“Yeh, it’ll be clearer up north.”
However the further north we went the grayer the sky became and with it, our hopes of a clear day in the Presidentials faded. Rick, Amy and I mulled over other possibilities.
We met up with Joni at a relatively crowded parking lot at Marshfield and headed up the trail at just about 9:00 sharp. We wore snowshoes round trip and the trail was well packed out ahead of us. We caught up with several groups on the way up before breaking treeline. As we were passing one group, we were told we needed to wait for women up ahead taking a bio break. We waited and chatted for a while. After what we thought was a long time Rick commented, “Our women are faster than yours.” Crickets! The audience was dead. This is a joke, you people! Can’t you take a joke?! At that point we all wanted to get out of there. It was time to move on. Finally the ladies were ready and we headed out, our two groups meshed together like a cross threaded screw. At last the gent in front of me pulled over and asked, “Would you like to go ahead?” I could now tell he had a solid grasp of the obvious. “Thanks,” I said flashing my friendliest smile. We soon put them to our stern.
After a steady dose of bobbing and weaving under the low snow covered branches and getting the requisite piles of snow on the backs of our necks, we broke above treeline and got our first glimpses of the peaks above us. We were just climbing out of the clouds and into the great wide open.
We spent the next couple hours spinning in circles, overcome with the sensory overload of the cobalt blue sky, white peaks, thick undercast, swirling mists, taking photo after photo, walking into deep snow and across crunchy perfect Styrofoam snowpack, talking to innumerable smiling faces (a few of them familiar) making their way across the ridges, and finally planting our feet on the summit of Mt Jefferson. The breeze forced us off the summit to a sheltered spot where we ate lunch in the warm glow of the sun. The encroaching mists and lifting of the undercast forced our hand and we retraced our steps.
On our return trip we took a lower track on the slopes of Mt clay, parallel to the Gulfside Trail but just above the treeline level. It was tracked out earlier by a group we had passed on the way up. It saved us some time, effort, elevation and it was a lovely walk as well. Finally we dipped low enough to be consumed by the clouds and after encountering two walking mirages descending towards us, we disappeared into the invisible opening in the trees. We were treated to a light snowfall as we descended through the trees and back to the parking lot. It was 2:20 and we said our good-byes to Joni and after a push out of our parking space by Marshie and friend, we were on the road again.
Photos are here. http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2734108210027359582Eihelw?vhost=outdoors I have noted the photos that were taken by Amy, Joni and RickB in the photo file names. Thanks for sharing! The rest are mine.
JohnL
“Wait ‘til we get above the Notch.”
“Yeh, it’ll be clearer up north.”
However the further north we went the grayer the sky became and with it, our hopes of a clear day in the Presidentials faded. Rick, Amy and I mulled over other possibilities.
We met up with Joni at a relatively crowded parking lot at Marshfield and headed up the trail at just about 9:00 sharp. We wore snowshoes round trip and the trail was well packed out ahead of us. We caught up with several groups on the way up before breaking treeline. As we were passing one group, we were told we needed to wait for women up ahead taking a bio break. We waited and chatted for a while. After what we thought was a long time Rick commented, “Our women are faster than yours.” Crickets! The audience was dead. This is a joke, you people! Can’t you take a joke?! At that point we all wanted to get out of there. It was time to move on. Finally the ladies were ready and we headed out, our two groups meshed together like a cross threaded screw. At last the gent in front of me pulled over and asked, “Would you like to go ahead?” I could now tell he had a solid grasp of the obvious. “Thanks,” I said flashing my friendliest smile. We soon put them to our stern.
After a steady dose of bobbing and weaving under the low snow covered branches and getting the requisite piles of snow on the backs of our necks, we broke above treeline and got our first glimpses of the peaks above us. We were just climbing out of the clouds and into the great wide open.
We spent the next couple hours spinning in circles, overcome with the sensory overload of the cobalt blue sky, white peaks, thick undercast, swirling mists, taking photo after photo, walking into deep snow and across crunchy perfect Styrofoam snowpack, talking to innumerable smiling faces (a few of them familiar) making their way across the ridges, and finally planting our feet on the summit of Mt Jefferson. The breeze forced us off the summit to a sheltered spot where we ate lunch in the warm glow of the sun. The encroaching mists and lifting of the undercast forced our hand and we retraced our steps.
On our return trip we took a lower track on the slopes of Mt clay, parallel to the Gulfside Trail but just above the treeline level. It was tracked out earlier by a group we had passed on the way up. It saved us some time, effort, elevation and it was a lovely walk as well. Finally we dipped low enough to be consumed by the clouds and after encountering two walking mirages descending towards us, we disappeared into the invisible opening in the trees. We were treated to a light snowfall as we descended through the trees and back to the parking lot. It was 2:20 and we said our good-byes to Joni and after a push out of our parking space by Marshie and friend, we were on the road again.
Photos are here. http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2734108210027359582Eihelw?vhost=outdoors I have noted the photos that were taken by Amy, Joni and RickB in the photo file names. Thanks for sharing! The rest are mine.
JohnL
