The Long Version!
The Long version!
Laurie and I had originally planned to do Allen Saturday, the 17th, but Old Man Winter had other plans. When we woke up at 5:00 AM on Saint Patty's Day, the main route outside of Aunt Polly's in Newcomb was not even plowed yet. It looked like 10" of snow was covering the roads. We didn't want to think of what it would be like on Upper Works Road!
So, we bagged the hike that day and set our sights on Sunday. We did drive to the trailhead on Saturday and note that Don Berens and 6 others had set off for Allen. (We later learned that Don and 4 of the hearty hikers from TCHC had made it to the top, in a 13.5 hour marathon! Don was about an hour faster). There had been a large group of people planning to go Saturday, but various contingencies, most the weather, kept all but a few from going. So, we figured some of them at least would try again Sunday. Aside from us and Kerry, this was not the case. Kerry had joined us for several Winter hikes the last 2 seasons. She is a strong hiker from Vermont, and we were thrilled to see her VW Beetle pull into the trailhead at 6:00 AM Sunday morning. She said Allen was her favorite Winter hike!
So off we went, at about 6:10.
It was about 15 degrees, with a light snow falling and a wind that varied from calm to down right stiff as the day went on. While 7 people had started out the trail the day before, the wind and snow had almost covered the trail up completely in places. This is not to say that the walking was difficult. Even walking off trail was fairly easy, as the crust under the new snow was now fairly hard. But it was still to be a long walk in the woods!
By about 8:00, we had crossed the stream that the busy Beaver - I mean Rabbit! - had built a bridge over. We could see the bridge, but it looked easier to just rock hop. We made it across without incident. After about 15 minutes, we were at the giant ALLEN sign that marks the start of the herd path. There is still the occasional flagging out there, but there are now many yellow plastic disks, clearly marking the way thru the private property. When we came to the end of this section, we were on a road. To the right and left snowshoe tracks could be seen. To the right there is a camp. We went left. Soon, we came to the famous 'sand pit'. Many snowmobile tracks were evident here. Eventually, we came to Skylight Brook. It was flowing freely, but we picked our way across the rocks. Laurie got one boot a little wet, but she was fine. Soon, we were starting up Allen Brook. Now the long flat path was over, and we began the ascent. The elevation here is about 2600', almost 1,000' higher than the trailhead 8 miles back, but there was still over 1700' to go in just over 1 mile!
We started up the slide, going much slower than before. I don't know exactly how long it took, but it was slow tough going. There was a fair amount of blowdown in the way, so we had to constantly duck under trees, or take detours. But eventually we made it to the exit point, (marked with orange ribbon), and started up the side trail. 5 minutes later, we were back on the slide! Oh well, up we continued. Eventually we made it to the ridge line. I had forgotten how many false bumps there were in the ridge line! But finally, at 11:28 AM, we were on Allen's summit!!! Yippee! We broke out 2 bottles of 46R Pale Ale, and celebrated! One bottle was almost frozen, and the other, sitting next to my water bottles all morning, was room temperature. The cold one was so cold, we couldn't drink it. We used it to spell out " T L W46! " in the snow. I know what it must have looked like, but it was beer, trust me!
We changed clothes and started down. The butt-sliding was about a 7 out of 10. We were down to the bottom of skylight brook in less than half an hour! Wahoo!
We made it past Skylight brook safely again, and around this point, I noticed I had dropped my pole!
So, if anyone finds a Black Diamond Flick-Lock pole on Allen, let me know!
The walk out is very annoying! It seems like once you get across the Brook, you are constantly going up hill!
But for a consolation, it did clear up, and we could see Adams, Skylight, Allen and some other high peaks here and there. The wind had mostly died down by now too. It's a LONG walk back to the car, but obviously, we made it. It was just after 4:00. We were glad in a way to have saved Allen for last. We were in good shape by now, having down well over 200 miles in the High Peaks this Winter, with about 50,000' of elevation gain!!!
We want to thank everyone who ever helped us. The list is long, so we'll just say "THANKS"! You know who you are!
And to all who broke trail for us, and never even knew it, thanks to you too! Believe me, we've given and taken on this front!
We had to endure deep snow covering the trail, no trail at all, fierce winds above tree line, ice, frigid temperatures, rain, mash-potato snow conditions, floods, falling into freezing water, unplowed roads, blisters, cuts, and scrapes, injuries, lack of energy
equipment failure, and who knows what else! But we persevered, and we made it!
So, now it ends. But does it? Probably not! Who knows! I still have another trip report in my head, "The musings of a Winter 46'R". It will take a long time to write it up properly. Stay tuned!
Pics:
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w1.jpg - Giant Allen sign
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w2.jpg - Laurie at summit
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w3.jpg - Tom at summit
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w4.jpg - Finger spelling!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w5.jpg - P.D.A.!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w6.jpg - Kerry - I think!
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w7.jpg - Allen from the trail
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w8.jpg - Mini-storm
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w9.jpg - High Peaks
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w10.jpg - Opalescent Brook
http://viewsandbrews.com/temp/w11.jpg - Signing out!
