the White Ledge trail again

Today's hike: 4.3 mi | 3.5 h | 1.2 mph

We snowshoed around the White Ledge Loop again, this morning. It was a fabulous, blue-sky day. We'd had some light snow yesterday, and didn't expect to see any broken trail. In fact, it looked like one or two people had been around the entire loop, either yesterday or today.

White Ledge Trail sign submerged in snow

I like to break trail, so it was a little disappointing. However, on a day like today, you can't stay grumpy for long.

Trail on the approach to the lookout. Animal tracks accompanied us most of the way.

We went counter-clockwise. Once you pass the lookout, you get to the really fun section, where there's wide open space, and you can pretty much make your own trail. It's a moderate downhill walk, and you're basically floating on deep snow. Super fun!

Make your own trail!

Nice hike! I hope the snow keeps coming so we can do this a few more times before the season ends.

narrow trail on the way back

another go at White Ledge

Today's hike: 4.3 mi | 3.0 h | 1.4 mph

I went snowshoeing around the White Ledge Loop with Maggie's boy today. We went clockwise today, too. It was another fantastic day! It snowed earlier this week, and no one had been out on the trail yet, so we got to break trail around the whole loop. It was about as good as it gets for snowshoeing, with about 5 inches of light, fluffy snow on most of the trail, with a thicker crust of crunchy snow underneath. The snow was thick enough to cover up the ice that was visible on my last trip here, which meant there was almost no risk of slipping and no need to go off-trail to avoid ice.

on the way up

on the way down

As we were leaving, we met a fellow heading in on snowshoes. A wise choice!

Note that with the current government shutdown, the driveway up to the gate has not been cleared. I was able to park on the shoulder of the road without any problem, fortunately.

snowshoeing up Middle Mountain Trail

Last night, it got unseasonably warm. Snow turned to rain. And then the skies cleared, and we got a beautiful, pleasant day for a change.

I went hiking up Middle Mountain Trail, where I've been snowshoeing before. The trail is pretty beaten down, and the rain has made the snow soft and a bit slushy. I started out without traction, then put on snowshoes as the trail steepened. This kind of snow might be best traversed with snowshoes rather than microspikes. With the latter, you may still be sliding on slippery snow.

view on the way up Middle Mountain Trail

The only difficulty I encountered was a significant ice bulge that covered the trail, about a mile in:

ice bulge covers the trail

Everyone seems to go right. You can grab the trees. I also grabbed an ice pocket down at the bottom. This is a steep section, so you don't want to lose your footing here. This was the only difficult part to the trail.

I hiked up to the intersection where you meet the Peaked Mountain Trail, then turned around. It's a half mile to Peaked Mountain from here, and 0.8 miles to Middle Mountain. Some other day...

Peaked Mountain - Middle Mountain Trail Connector

It doesn't get much better than this! Hiking back down was a lot easier than hiking up. 

View on the way down Middle Mountain Trail

The hike was a total of 2.4 miles. It took about an hour and 25 minutes, for a pace of about 1.7 mph.