drweo
New member
Used microspikes (essential) all the way, though could have used crampons on the upper mts. Snowshoes would have been superfluous.
Trail surface ranged from just a dusting of fresh powder low down to powder over a foot or more of very hard snow at higher elevations. There was some thin ice over water on the trail in the col, where the trail looked like it had been a stream during the recent rain/thaw. Trail had been packed by snowshoes when the snow was fresh, and barebooted after that, but overall it was very hikable. We were the first to go up the trail this day, with a couple parties ahead of us who went up the Fisherman's Trail to try for Lone/Rocky. At the lookout on Peekamoose, met two hikers who had followed us up and another who had come up the other side. Only people we saw all day till return to the parking area (5.5 hr. RT, including sightseeing at the lookout) where we met two hikers who had been in to Lone/Rocky. They reported an AMC group still in on the same route. Across Table and over to Peekamoose, we followed the very fresh tracks of a bobcat, who must have liked the trail!
Cold, breezy day (teens to maybe twenty, a little colder up high). After the trail junction at the Neversink/bridges, this hike, though there are not a lot of open vistas, travels through some very beautiful forest and terrain. The drive up the Denning/Neversink Valley is very pretty as well.
Trail surface ranged from just a dusting of fresh powder low down to powder over a foot or more of very hard snow at higher elevations. There was some thin ice over water on the trail in the col, where the trail looked like it had been a stream during the recent rain/thaw. Trail had been packed by snowshoes when the snow was fresh, and barebooted after that, but overall it was very hikable. We were the first to go up the trail this day, with a couple parties ahead of us who went up the Fisherman's Trail to try for Lone/Rocky. At the lookout on Peekamoose, met two hikers who had followed us up and another who had come up the other side. Only people we saw all day till return to the parking area (5.5 hr. RT, including sightseeing at the lookout) where we met two hikers who had been in to Lone/Rocky. They reported an AMC group still in on the same route. Across Table and over to Peekamoose, we followed the very fresh tracks of a bobcat, who must have liked the trail!
Cold, breezy day (teens to maybe twenty, a little colder up high). After the trail junction at the Neversink/bridges, this hike, though there are not a lot of open vistas, travels through some very beautiful forest and terrain. The drive up the Denning/Neversink Valley is very pretty as well.
