bunchberry
New member
On Saturday morning May 21st I left the Lafayette Place Campground with 14 girl scouts (6th - 9th grade) and 7 adult leaders including myself. The plan was to hike up the Old Bridle Path to Greenleaf Hut, and then perhaps take a jaunt up to the summit of Lafayette and back before cooking dinner (I love self-service season!). Our big group split into 3 smaller groups, and I was hiking in the first group with some of the veteran scouts who had done this trip before, and also with two girls who were much less experienced. It makes me so happy to hike with people who are new to it all--the views, looking for the trail blazes, navigating tricky sections of the trail, etc.
The hike up took us 3 and a half hours, including all breaks, of which there were plenty. The trail was dry all the way until we reached the agonies, and at that point the rocks were pretty wet and there were intermittent snow and ice patches up til the hut, but it was still easily barebootable. We had magnificent views along the ridge as we made our way up, and tried to hike faster than the rain that we could tell was catching up to us. We saw lots of people along the trail, most were speaking French (I heard it was a long weekend for the Canadians) and there were also several trail crew/trail adopters out as well. I made sure to say thank you to all of them--they do such incredible work for all of us.
We made it to the hut just as it started raining, and the rest of our group arrived over the next hour. A small group of five hiked all the way to the summit, but I chose to rest in the hut as I am still recovering from a fall I took last weekend on an icy patch on the Gale River Trail. I heard from then that from the hut to the treeline there is still a lot of slippery snow, but from the treeline to the summit it is all bare rock. We also heard that the ridge is all bare now, but that the Falling Waters Trail still requires traction devices, especially going downhill. We enjoyed a yummy dinner that night (cooked entirely by the girls while the adults chatted
, and I had a warm and restful sleep...
When I woke up and looked out the window, I was quite surprised to see that 2 inches of snow had already fallen during the night and that the snow was still coming down! The girls were all very excited about the snow, but a little nervous as well. As my hiking group started down the trail, it was a little slow going but not as bad as we thought since the snow was wet and sticky, and gripped pretty well. I wore yaktrax from the Hut to the bottom of the slippery agonies section, but the rest of my group barebooted it and were fine. I doubt the new snow lasted very long on the trail because it was very wet and slushy. Then, the snow changed to rain and the rest of our hike down to the trailhead was wet and pleasant. All in all, a great and relaxing weekend.
Seema, enjoy your hike and gourmet cooking this weekend!
The hike up took us 3 and a half hours, including all breaks, of which there were plenty. The trail was dry all the way until we reached the agonies, and at that point the rocks were pretty wet and there were intermittent snow and ice patches up til the hut, but it was still easily barebootable. We had magnificent views along the ridge as we made our way up, and tried to hike faster than the rain that we could tell was catching up to us. We saw lots of people along the trail, most were speaking French (I heard it was a long weekend for the Canadians) and there were also several trail crew/trail adopters out as well. I made sure to say thank you to all of them--they do such incredible work for all of us.
We made it to the hut just as it started raining, and the rest of our group arrived over the next hour. A small group of five hiked all the way to the summit, but I chose to rest in the hut as I am still recovering from a fall I took last weekend on an icy patch on the Gale River Trail. I heard from then that from the hut to the treeline there is still a lot of slippery snow, but from the treeline to the summit it is all bare rock. We also heard that the ridge is all bare now, but that the Falling Waters Trail still requires traction devices, especially going downhill. We enjoyed a yummy dinner that night (cooked entirely by the girls while the adults chatted
, and I had a warm and restful sleep...When I woke up and looked out the window, I was quite surprised to see that 2 inches of snow had already fallen during the night and that the snow was still coming down! The girls were all very excited about the snow, but a little nervous as well. As my hiking group started down the trail, it was a little slow going but not as bad as we thought since the snow was wet and sticky, and gripped pretty well. I wore yaktrax from the Hut to the bottom of the slippery agonies section, but the rest of my group barebooted it and were fine. I doubt the new snow lasted very long on the trail because it was very wet and slushy. Then, the snow changed to rain and the rest of our hike down to the trailhead was wet and pleasant. All in all, a great and relaxing weekend.
Seema, enjoy your hike and gourmet cooking this weekend!
