Jay H
New member
Plan: Marshall from Upper Works
Participants: Arm, Darl58, Juniper, Zer0-G, Jay H
After harnessing the santa hat pom pom on saturday, never in my wildest dreams would I think this weekend would get better. I don't have president's day off but since everybody else had it off or took off, I thought I would too and took Monday off so I could spend another day in the woods. Sunday night turned out to be somewhat overcast, with perhaps a 30% chance of snow on monday on an old forecast printed before the weekend. However, waking up on Monday at a brisk 5:30am alarm, although it was dark, it looked clear.
After almost hitting a deer on Rt 28N, we get to the end of Upper Works at about 7:30ish and prepare to leave. After doing the Santas, Donna decided that she didn't feel up to Marshall and 7Summits had a bum foot so they quietly backed out. Or at least Donna quietly backed out. 7Summits seemed quite excited not to hike.
So, the 5 of us left at about 8am, on the way to Flowed Lands making good progress, passing a group going to Cliff. Trail gradually climbs to Flowed Lands and I get to the trail junction with the views towards Colden and the first leanto. Since I didn't want to overshoot herbert brook, I decide just to take the red trail around Flowed Lands. (At this point, I forgot about the leanto at Herbert Brook). So we do the trail which was already packed down by previous hikers and make our way to Herbert Brook bridge. Notice that there is a flag right at the herdpath junction and we stop at the leanto to rest a bit, grab some food and enjoy the abundant sunshine. Notice there is some gear left in the leanto and a small stuff sack hanging from the roof.
Heading up the broken path, this nice little southern approach is extremely beautiful in winter, the brook being pretty, the forrests, enchanted, and the sunshine streaming through the canopy, very pretty. After what seemed like the perfect trail, shortly becomes a mystery. Trails go in multiple directions, the one trail that looked like the most packed, goes up and with spruce on it, which usually marks bad trails...and some tracks leading back towards the brook and going down. After a bit of rubbing chins, we decide to head up, heck, we're supposed to climb and climb, we will! I do remember the forewarning from previous trip reports about the first summit bump, but figure we'll figure something out and I do remember the reports of the views.
The views are AMAZING, the Marshall Plan is working, God, those views are spectacular, never having seen them before during summer, we are gifted with views of people on Iroquois and great views towards Colden. However, I could see at this point that this is definitely the little bump on the topo map and not the summit bump and we reach a section of spruce where the heavy tracks ceased. Certainly I can see the open rift between the two peaks but the steep 30-40' vertical descent to the col seems thick with a cliff band. After though checking out the eastern ridge, I see the perfect chute that headed down. The snow was very crusty with a bit of ice but with the sun and the temps, the snow was soft enough to carefully downclimb w/o anything other than snowshoes. Once at the col, I broke the trail and found a very very faint herdpath through some thick spruce til we met up with the summer herdpath about 1000ft before the true summit Once we were through, I put spruce on the path we came from, just to keep others from doing that, although it is the nicer way!
The Marshall Summit!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOooTTTTTTTT My final winter summit to finish my 1st winter round of the ADK 46rs, been 2 years (Aug '07) since my regular finish and I know last winter, I was very seriously working on the winter peaks, having done like 20ish or so peaks last winter, hiking with a lot of different friends and just having a good time. You all know who you are, thanks for such a great trip and for all the experiences that will live with me forever. Of course, now we have to go down, but we shared Woopie Pies, pictures, high fives, and celebrated New Years Day on President's Day.. (you'll understand soon! the method of our madness.
Anyway, still have to get down, quite a bit concerned with Darl58's knee, seemingly having quite a bit of pain coming down the chute off the first peak. We decide to try to follow HOL's and the ADK Ladies trail down which we hoped went to the summer herdpath without any more ups. Following their tracks, we get to the brook where we noticed the path starts to leave the brook. We surmise that they backtracked to their original ascent which would entail climbing a bit back to the ascent on the first summit. Also assuming that they probably put the spruce on the false track on the way down. So we decide to leave the track and just whack down, following the brook, breaking trail, but at least going downhill. Some of it pretty steep. Have no idea if we were following the herdpath but just following the path of least resistance. Eventually we find our tracks across the brook and we just cross at a frozen section and pick up our tracks for the quick way down to the leanto. At this point, it's about mid afternoon and we stop at the leanto again, which is now devoid of gear. We walk across flowed lands on the most beautiful lake walk I think I have done. Nicer than Lake Colden, about as nice as Avalanche Pass perhaps, maybe not. Anyway, we make our way out towards the parking lot and sign out. At this point, I notice BillnJudy signed a hello which I didn't see that morning and find a note on my car and an envelope... Damm, we missed them, but apparently after talking to 7Summits and Donna, they ran into them just about 10-15 minutes before we got out. Bummer...
What a day and weekend with friends, one and all
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Marshall2009_02_16
p.s. The marshall plan remains unfinished.. stay tuned...
Jay
Participants: Arm, Darl58, Juniper, Zer0-G, Jay H
After harnessing the santa hat pom pom on saturday, never in my wildest dreams would I think this weekend would get better. I don't have president's day off but since everybody else had it off or took off, I thought I would too and took Monday off so I could spend another day in the woods. Sunday night turned out to be somewhat overcast, with perhaps a 30% chance of snow on monday on an old forecast printed before the weekend. However, waking up on Monday at a brisk 5:30am alarm, although it was dark, it looked clear.
After almost hitting a deer on Rt 28N, we get to the end of Upper Works at about 7:30ish and prepare to leave. After doing the Santas, Donna decided that she didn't feel up to Marshall and 7Summits had a bum foot so they quietly backed out. Or at least Donna quietly backed out. 7Summits seemed quite excited not to hike.
So, the 5 of us left at about 8am, on the way to Flowed Lands making good progress, passing a group going to Cliff. Trail gradually climbs to Flowed Lands and I get to the trail junction with the views towards Colden and the first leanto. Since I didn't want to overshoot herbert brook, I decide just to take the red trail around Flowed Lands. (At this point, I forgot about the leanto at Herbert Brook). So we do the trail which was already packed down by previous hikers and make our way to Herbert Brook bridge. Notice that there is a flag right at the herdpath junction and we stop at the leanto to rest a bit, grab some food and enjoy the abundant sunshine. Notice there is some gear left in the leanto and a small stuff sack hanging from the roof. Heading up the broken path, this nice little southern approach is extremely beautiful in winter, the brook being pretty, the forrests, enchanted, and the sunshine streaming through the canopy, very pretty. After what seemed like the perfect trail, shortly becomes a mystery. Trails go in multiple directions, the one trail that looked like the most packed, goes up and with spruce on it, which usually marks bad trails...and some tracks leading back towards the brook and going down. After a bit of rubbing chins, we decide to head up, heck, we're supposed to climb and climb, we will!
I do remember the forewarning from previous trip reports about the first summit bump, but figure we'll figure something out and I do remember the reports of the views. The views are AMAZING, the Marshall Plan is working, God, those views are spectacular, never having seen them before during summer, we are gifted with views of people on Iroquois and great views towards Colden. However, I could see at this point that this is definitely the little bump on the topo map and not the summit bump and we reach a section of spruce where the heavy tracks ceased. Certainly I can see the open rift between the two peaks but the steep 30-40' vertical descent to the col seems thick with a cliff band. After though checking out the eastern ridge, I see the perfect chute that headed down. The snow was very crusty with a bit of ice but with the sun and the temps, the snow was soft enough to carefully downclimb w/o anything other than snowshoes. Once at the col, I broke the trail and found a very very faint herdpath through some thick spruce til we met up with the summer herdpath about 1000ft before the true summit Once we were through, I put spruce on the path we came from, just to keep others from doing that, although it is the nicer way!
The Marshall Summit!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOOooTTTTTTTT
My final winter summit to finish my 1st winter round of the ADK 46rs, been 2 years (Aug '07) since my regular finish and I know last winter, I was very seriously working on the winter peaks, having done like 20ish or so peaks last winter, hiking with a lot of different friends and just having a good time. You all know who you are, thanks for such a great trip and for all the experiences that will live with me forever. Of course, now we have to go down, but we shared Woopie Pies, pictures, high fives, and celebrated New Years Day on President's Day.. (you'll understand soon! the method of our madness. Anyway, still have to get down, quite a bit concerned with Darl58's knee, seemingly having quite a bit of pain coming down the chute off the first peak. We decide to try to follow HOL's and the ADK Ladies trail down which we hoped went to the summer herdpath without any more ups. Following their tracks, we get to the brook where we noticed the path starts to leave the brook. We surmise that they backtracked to their original ascent which would entail climbing a bit back to the ascent on the first summit. Also assuming that they probably put the spruce on the false track on the way down. So we decide to leave the track and just whack down, following the brook, breaking trail, but at least going downhill. Some of it pretty steep. Have no idea if we were following the herdpath but just following the path of least resistance. Eventually we find our tracks across the brook and we just cross at a frozen section and pick up our tracks for the quick way down to the leanto. At this point, it's about mid afternoon and we stop at the leanto again, which is now devoid of gear. We walk across flowed lands on the most beautiful lake walk I think I have done. Nicer than Lake Colden, about as nice as Avalanche Pass perhaps, maybe not
. Anyway, we make our way out towards the parking lot and sign out. At this point, I notice BillnJudy signed a hello which I didn't see that morning and find a note on my car and an envelope... Damm, we missed them, but apparently after talking to 7Summits and Donna, they ran into them just about 10-15 minutes before we got out. Bummer... What a day and weekend with friends, one and all
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Marshall2009_02_16
p.s. The marshall plan remains unfinished.. stay tuned...
Jay
