Guinness
Active member
Left the trailhead at 7:00 a.m. taking the AMR road 2.5 miles to the Fish Hawk Cliffs cutoff trail. This trail rejoins the Gill Brook Trail after 0.5 miles. At this junction, I met with Louis coming up the Gill Brook trail. We traveled up the trail together, where he would pull away and I would play catch-up. The temperature was getting warmer with no wind. Soon I was down to my long sleeve “T” and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. At times I was over-heating and wished I brought shorts.
Some icy areas were found on the ascent to Nippletop. I stopped for a long break on the top of one icy slope and heard the familiar crunching of snowshoes approaching. Here I met Andy who also doing the traverse. Soon I was on the summit taking in the excellent views. When I arrived on the summit, Louis was just finishing his break and getting ready to head off to Dial. Another climber joined us (his name escapes me – sorry). Soon everyone left for Dial.
On the trail to Dial, I noticed what appeared to be a light coating of dirt covering the snow. It made no sense to me since there was no place for this dirt to blow in from. On closer inspection, the dirt was moving! Millions and millions of flea sized insects. They would congregate in the depressions made from the boot prints, poles and any opening in the surface of the snow. I have no idea what these were, but I suspect the warmer weather caused an early release. I thought this ranks as “weird” almost as much as seeing hundreds of dead crickets on the approach above 9000 feet on Mt. Hood.
Dial back to the road was uneventful. The Noonmark shoulder was so warm, the scramble up was in mud, roots and rocks. There were two areas after the shoulder that required careful navigation due to the icy conditions. Several areas the snow was the consistency of mashed potatoes. The temperature did hit 40 degrees along the trail and with the bright sun, it was too warm. Great day to hike! My times were 8:40 roundtrip from the trailhead. Check out the latest pics.
Some icy areas were found on the ascent to Nippletop. I stopped for a long break on the top of one icy slope and heard the familiar crunching of snowshoes approaching. Here I met Andy who also doing the traverse. Soon I was on the summit taking in the excellent views. When I arrived on the summit, Louis was just finishing his break and getting ready to head off to Dial. Another climber joined us (his name escapes me – sorry). Soon everyone left for Dial.
On the trail to Dial, I noticed what appeared to be a light coating of dirt covering the snow. It made no sense to me since there was no place for this dirt to blow in from. On closer inspection, the dirt was moving! Millions and millions of flea sized insects. They would congregate in the depressions made from the boot prints, poles and any opening in the surface of the snow. I have no idea what these were, but I suspect the warmer weather caused an early release. I thought this ranks as “weird” almost as much as seeing hundreds of dead crickets on the approach above 9000 feet on Mt. Hood.
Dial back to the road was uneventful. The Noonmark shoulder was so warm, the scramble up was in mud, roots and rocks. There were two areas after the shoulder that required careful navigation due to the icy conditions. Several areas the snow was the consistency of mashed potatoes. The temperature did hit 40 degrees along the trail and with the bright sun, it was too warm. Great day to hike! My times were 8:40 roundtrip from the trailhead. Check out the latest pics.
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