A few of us NYers were discussing this winter trip.
I did the trip as planned and, as serendipity often has it, it was well timed.
Bit of a mucky snow event back home to the south, but it was sublime up in the Daks.
GPS tracks on Caltopo.
Temperature in the low 20’s for the hike into Bushnell Falls on a well packed trail. It took 2hrs10min to do the 4.8mi with approx 1400ft vertical gain, which is a decent pace by winter standards.
There was plenty of time to set up camp so I leveled out a tent spot in the snow, which was very dry and granular and was in no hurry to consolidate. So I made a little kitchen spot, set up the stove and made myself a cup of coffee, and did some other chores in order to give the snow more time to firm up.
Next morning, the temperature had barely dropped all night, 18F in the morning as read on my thermometer. I had some breakfast and was eager to get on the trail, but soon discovered that I had lost a basket on one of my trek poles, so I spent some time looking for it. Didn’t find it, so instead of wasting all day looking for it I just headed out toward Marcy, learning very shortly thereafter that snow baskets are indeed a useful item… Grrr!!
The Hopkins (Yellow) Trail had not been traveled for a few days. There was a set of tracks coming down the trail, but they had largely been filled in by snow and/or blowing snow, so there was considerable trailbreaking to be done.
It was a relief to arrive at the junction with the Van Hoevenberg Trail leading to the top of Marcy. It was well packed and it felt like I was cruising down a freeway compared to the sometimes floppy flailing on certain steep parts of the Hopkins Trail. Still a fair amount of up, but grip was good and the summit was in sight.
My climb up the final slopes arrived at exactly the same time as a cold front was arriving. At the Van Hoevenberg junction the sky still had that pewter grey color and the air was very still. On the way up, a blue wedge appeared to the north and the wind picked up considerably. I should have taken that as a strong hint to put on some wind gear, but I suppose I was hoping against hope that it would be calm, warmer and sunny for at least brief period.
But that did not happen. It turned quite windy (approx 20-25 mph) and the temperature dropped a few degrees very quickly, down to 17F, which made for a pretty nasty wind chill. I found a little sheltered spot on the lee side of the summit and put on some more layers.
I spent about 20 minutes on top, of which about 15 minutes was consumed by adjusting clothing and eating/drinking, took a few photos, put on the microspikes and hustled back down the hill, out of the wind.
The trip back was much easier, being downhill and having been freshly broken on my trip up.
All totaled, vertical gain (and loss) was about 2800 ft with up taking approximately 4hs 10min and down taking about 3 hrs.
And after cursing myself pretty much all day for losing the effin’ snow basket, I find it on the trail right at the Bushnell Falls lean-to.
I had a Mountain House chicken-n-noodle dinner, with coffee and cigar during rehydration, which I find to be the perfect timing devices. Those things take a lot longer to fully reconstitute than is claimed on the package instructions.
Sunday morning I woke up to about 1.5 inches of fresh snow and a temperature of +3F. There’s a bit more “bite” as the temp approaches zero and it could definitely be felt. After the rather strenuous day before, I slept in until it was light and made breakfast and struck camp at a very leisurely pace.
The hike out was fun – really strokin’ along in the microspikes in downhill cruise control.
The trail to Bushnell was in great shape!
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Johns Brook all frozen over… it can be quite tumultuous during the spring melt!
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Johns Brook Lodge, about 3 miles in…
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Home sweet home for the next couple of nights
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Hopkins trail to Marcy
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At last! A well-packed trail again with the summit in sight!
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Yours truly, near the Hoevenberg junction…
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At the top of Marcy!
A view from the top, in fact the best I’ve had in my few times up there.
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Of course, the light was better on the way down!!
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It cooled off a wee bit during the night…
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And a bit of snow overnight…
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