BIGEarl
Well-known member
January 1, 2011: North Twin
Trails: North Twin Trail
Summits: North Twin
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue), Cumulus (Dennis), and me
Our hike plan for the day was a traverse over the Twins and Galehead starting at the end of Little River Road and finishing at Beaver Brook Wayside Area. We met Cumulus and his wife Laura at Beaver Brook. After transferring our things, Laura drove us to Little River Road and the hike. The temperature was 37 degrees, overcast, and no wind.
At the start of the hike we had a broken trail but didn’t know how long that would last. Right from the start we used snowshoes. We crossed Little River and made the turn to the summer trailhead for N. Twin Trail. The route follows the left bank of Little River between the river and Haystack road and generally leads directly to the trailhead lot. It’s a relatively short walk that took us ~30 minutes to complete. The winter alternative would be to hike Haystack Road in to the trailhead from Route 3 which is well over twice the distance.
The broken trail continued from the trailhead along N. Twin Trail. A fair amount of ski traffic had the trail smooth and wide. We were able to hike along at a comfortable pace enjoying terrific trail conditions. We were having a pretty good day. We reached the first crossing of Little River and the tracked out route stayed left and followed the course of the bushwhack bypass to the first two crossings. Roughly half way between the first and second crossing, the packed trail went left uphill and headed for Hale. That was the end of a broken trail.
We stopped to discuss our next move. We knew breaking the trail out would be a tough time. Because of the warm conditions we had very close to mashed potato snow. We considered bailing and changing to another target for the day but decided that would take out the morning just in making the change, etc. Instead, we decided to start in and set a turn-around time of 3:00pm. We decided to go as far as we could.
Sue was out front to start. She is amazing in her ability to settle into a pace and go with an unbroken trail. Sue led us all of the way through the remainder of the bushwhack bypass route and along the trail to the third crossing of Little River. There we stopped to survey the area. We had warm conditions and areas of open water in the river. We also had no indication there had been any previous traffic across the stream to test the ice bridges. Sue (the lightest of the group) took one of Cumulus’ poles and slowly started across probing the ice ahead all along the way. She was able to pick a fairly direct route through the ice to the far side with no problems at all. Next up was Cumulus. He slowly made his way across the route and reached the far side with dry feet. Finally, it was my turn to see if I could make it across with the same luck. Success! We were all on the far side of Little River and preparing to start into the tough part of the day.
Cumulus led the way from the third crossing. We climbed the bank away from Little River and settled into a trail-breaking pace. Sue and Cumulus swapped places in the lead a couple times but soon Cumulus was out front and focused on the job of trail breaking. I was behind Cumulus and trying to use alternate foot placement to leave a smooth track. Cumulus is tall with long legs while I’m not so tall with short legs. This combination made alternate foot placement difficult because of the different stride but I kept at it. The snow was heavy and wet making for tough going. Cumulus stayed in front all of the way to the small stream crossing roughly one mile up from Little River. There, Sue pulled around and led the way. Sue’s stride is much more in-line with mine and alternate foot placement became more comfortable.
Slowly we made our way along the trail toward N. Twin. Along the way we passed four blowdowns on the trail. The one lowest on the trail completely blocks the trail but after another couple feet of snow the trail will certainly pass over this one. One other is low and easy to step over. The remaining two are the stoop under variety. A Good Samaritan with a saw could do everybody a favor by opening the middle of these. Both are four to six inches in diameter.
Roughly half way up, the trail makes a hard left and contours south for a distance before making a hard right and starting the steep upper ascent. The televators came up and we all dug into the climb. There was some slipping and sliding due to poor footing in the wet snow, which burns up energy fast. Sue made a number of stops along the way to recover but she never gave up the lead. Sue stayed out front for the remainder of the climb. Cumulus and I followed close behind performing trail grooming as well as we could.
Finally we hit the ridge northeast of the actual summit. The snow along the ridge was deeper and less supportive. I wasn’t using the extension tails on my snowshoes and the floatation was a little less than I would have liked. We were close to the summit so I just lived with it and didn’t bother pulling out the tails from my pack.
A little before 2:00pm we arrived at the summit of North Twin after roughly four miles of trail breaking through mashed potato snow. First we went to the viewpoint for a few pictures. Then, Sue took advantage of perfect snowman snow and built a nice one at the N. Twin – N. Twin Spur trails junction. We had known for a long time the plans for the day were lost but we wanted to get as much as we could. After a brief discussion we decided to u-turn and head back out the way we came in. Continuing to S. Twin before exiting would have left us descending from N. Twin in darkness. We need to return for Galehead and will plan to hike S. Twin at the same time.
Back down we hiked. The return hike to the third crossing of Little River was generally uneventful. There were a few slips along the way but nothing unusual for winter hiking on snowshoes. A couple hours after leaving the summit of N. Twin we were again taking turns at the river crossing. Again, we all reached the far side with dry feet.
Here we stopped to check our progress. Cumulus had called Laura from the summit and left a message that we would need a ride from Little River Road back to Beaver Brook and expected to be out around 6:00pm. We wanted to make sure the estimate still made sense, and it did. Then, I learned something very important about Cumulus. Our friend likes to make cookies, very good cookies, and he always carries a container of them in his pack. Cumulus claimed he planned to pull them out on the summit to share but forgot. That’s once – please, don’t forget again. They were out now and I had three, or four (lost count). They were really good! I need to remember to check with Cumulus about cookies every time we hike together in the future. Thanks Cumulus – they were a terrific treat and a needed shot of energy.
Recharged, we continued our exit walk. There were no surprises along the way. We passed the trail split where we started the trail breaking, soon after pulled out the headlights, cleared the summer trailhead, and finally reached the end of Little River Road. In a few minutes Laura pulled up to provide a shuttle back to Beaver Brook.
Sue and Cumulus – sorry the day didn’t go as planned but I guess that’s part of winter hiking. There are some decisions concerning the day that could have been made differently – hindsight is always 20-20. We still had a good day in the mountains.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
Trails: North Twin Trail
Summits: North Twin
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue), Cumulus (Dennis), and me
Our hike plan for the day was a traverse over the Twins and Galehead starting at the end of Little River Road and finishing at Beaver Brook Wayside Area. We met Cumulus and his wife Laura at Beaver Brook. After transferring our things, Laura drove us to Little River Road and the hike. The temperature was 37 degrees, overcast, and no wind.
At the start of the hike we had a broken trail but didn’t know how long that would last. Right from the start we used snowshoes. We crossed Little River and made the turn to the summer trailhead for N. Twin Trail. The route follows the left bank of Little River between the river and Haystack road and generally leads directly to the trailhead lot. It’s a relatively short walk that took us ~30 minutes to complete. The winter alternative would be to hike Haystack Road in to the trailhead from Route 3 which is well over twice the distance.
The broken trail continued from the trailhead along N. Twin Trail. A fair amount of ski traffic had the trail smooth and wide. We were able to hike along at a comfortable pace enjoying terrific trail conditions. We were having a pretty good day. We reached the first crossing of Little River and the tracked out route stayed left and followed the course of the bushwhack bypass to the first two crossings. Roughly half way between the first and second crossing, the packed trail went left uphill and headed for Hale. That was the end of a broken trail.
We stopped to discuss our next move. We knew breaking the trail out would be a tough time. Because of the warm conditions we had very close to mashed potato snow. We considered bailing and changing to another target for the day but decided that would take out the morning just in making the change, etc. Instead, we decided to start in and set a turn-around time of 3:00pm. We decided to go as far as we could.
Sue was out front to start. She is amazing in her ability to settle into a pace and go with an unbroken trail. Sue led us all of the way through the remainder of the bushwhack bypass route and along the trail to the third crossing of Little River. There we stopped to survey the area. We had warm conditions and areas of open water in the river. We also had no indication there had been any previous traffic across the stream to test the ice bridges. Sue (the lightest of the group) took one of Cumulus’ poles and slowly started across probing the ice ahead all along the way. She was able to pick a fairly direct route through the ice to the far side with no problems at all. Next up was Cumulus. He slowly made his way across the route and reached the far side with dry feet. Finally, it was my turn to see if I could make it across with the same luck. Success! We were all on the far side of Little River and preparing to start into the tough part of the day.
Cumulus led the way from the third crossing. We climbed the bank away from Little River and settled into a trail-breaking pace. Sue and Cumulus swapped places in the lead a couple times but soon Cumulus was out front and focused on the job of trail breaking. I was behind Cumulus and trying to use alternate foot placement to leave a smooth track. Cumulus is tall with long legs while I’m not so tall with short legs. This combination made alternate foot placement difficult because of the different stride but I kept at it. The snow was heavy and wet making for tough going. Cumulus stayed in front all of the way to the small stream crossing roughly one mile up from Little River. There, Sue pulled around and led the way. Sue’s stride is much more in-line with mine and alternate foot placement became more comfortable.
Slowly we made our way along the trail toward N. Twin. Along the way we passed four blowdowns on the trail. The one lowest on the trail completely blocks the trail but after another couple feet of snow the trail will certainly pass over this one. One other is low and easy to step over. The remaining two are the stoop under variety. A Good Samaritan with a saw could do everybody a favor by opening the middle of these. Both are four to six inches in diameter.
Roughly half way up, the trail makes a hard left and contours south for a distance before making a hard right and starting the steep upper ascent. The televators came up and we all dug into the climb. There was some slipping and sliding due to poor footing in the wet snow, which burns up energy fast. Sue made a number of stops along the way to recover but she never gave up the lead. Sue stayed out front for the remainder of the climb. Cumulus and I followed close behind performing trail grooming as well as we could.
Finally we hit the ridge northeast of the actual summit. The snow along the ridge was deeper and less supportive. I wasn’t using the extension tails on my snowshoes and the floatation was a little less than I would have liked. We were close to the summit so I just lived with it and didn’t bother pulling out the tails from my pack.
A little before 2:00pm we arrived at the summit of North Twin after roughly four miles of trail breaking through mashed potato snow. First we went to the viewpoint for a few pictures. Then, Sue took advantage of perfect snowman snow and built a nice one at the N. Twin – N. Twin Spur trails junction. We had known for a long time the plans for the day were lost but we wanted to get as much as we could. After a brief discussion we decided to u-turn and head back out the way we came in. Continuing to S. Twin before exiting would have left us descending from N. Twin in darkness. We need to return for Galehead and will plan to hike S. Twin at the same time.
Back down we hiked. The return hike to the third crossing of Little River was generally uneventful. There were a few slips along the way but nothing unusual for winter hiking on snowshoes. A couple hours after leaving the summit of N. Twin we were again taking turns at the river crossing. Again, we all reached the far side with dry feet.
Here we stopped to check our progress. Cumulus had called Laura from the summit and left a message that we would need a ride from Little River Road back to Beaver Brook and expected to be out around 6:00pm. We wanted to make sure the estimate still made sense, and it did. Then, I learned something very important about Cumulus. Our friend likes to make cookies, very good cookies, and he always carries a container of them in his pack. Cumulus claimed he planned to pull them out on the summit to share but forgot. That’s once – please, don’t forget again. They were out now and I had three, or four (lost count). They were really good! I need to remember to check with Cumulus about cookies every time we hike together in the future. Thanks Cumulus – they were a terrific treat and a needed shot of energy.
Recharged, we continued our exit walk. There were no surprises along the way. We passed the trail split where we started the trail breaking, soon after pulled out the headlights, cleared the summer trailhead, and finally reached the end of Little River Road. In a few minutes Laura pulled up to provide a shuttle back to Beaver Brook.
Sue and Cumulus – sorry the day didn’t go as planned but I guess that’s part of winter hiking. There are some decisions concerning the day that could have been made differently – hindsight is always 20-20. We still had a good day in the mountains.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
