U
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My friend and I started out from Randolf parking lot at 715am, made the long hike up the Howker Ridge Trail. After 2 hours we gained elevation enough to climb up and down the several "howks" to find ourselves somewhere less than a mile from the summit, but had to turn around due to darkness at around 2pm. The trail wasn't very hiked, at least not since its been snowing. There was a thin crust that we broke through even with wide snowshoes, and above the alpine zone there were snow drifts up to our thighs at times. It was the first hike of the winter, and we decided we set the bar a little too high. Fun day though, fairly nice weather, good mix of clouds with light snow to clear skies and sun. Wind and temperature wasn't bad (about 10 degrees F, around 30 mph wind gusts), but we also didn't make it to the top. Definitely an arduous trail, only to be hiked by the determined.
