Slow getting started this season, partly the weather but mostly just lethargy ...
But I finally found myself headed north to Bartlett this weekend.
Pretty dubious about conditions on the ground once I got there; I had wanted to do some brushwhacking but the snow wasn't really deep enough to float over the rocks and snags.
And the river crossing I had in mind - forget it. Nowhere near frozen enough.
Decided I'd go up Black Cap. I didn't feel particularly ambitious, but seemed like I should do something.
I wasn't that excited about Black Cap, I've been up it quite a few times. It's a nice enough mountain, actually excellent, but in summer & fall it's almost a trivial walk.
Winter, however, is another story.
For starters, Hurricane Mountain Rd is gated. This adds about 3.5 miles round trip, and maybe 1000' or so elevation gain, for a total about 5.5 miles, 1800 ft. This doesn't make it epic, but it does make it not trivial.
Rather than do the road walk, I hoped to ascend via the Red Tail mountain bike trail. It is a terrific summer trail, but not well marked for winter use. Fortunately, someone who knew the trail left tracks for me to follow.
Not warm, not frigid, nice uneventful hike until I hit the first in a series of iced-over saplings. There was an ice storm recently, and while I'm sure the trail is nice & wide in this area in the summer/fall, today there were sections that were pretty much brushwhacking. Weighed down by the ice, there were many saplings bending into the trail. There wasn't any question of dodging into the woods to get around them; these are former-harvested and now overgrown sections that are just too thick. So ... just slogged thru these, sometimes bulldozing, sometimes slithering through. Lots of crackly ice sounds. Fortunately it hadn't warmed up enough yet to start a melt, or I'd have been soaked.
Eventually came out to the Cranmore trail junction and headed for the Black Cap trail. Watched some snowmobilers go by on the cross path. I don't really 'get' snowmobiling; I've done it, but found it pretty boring after a couple short trips. I headed on up the Black Cap trail, which was well traveled (by skiers - the summit path is closed to snowmobiles). It might have been better to go around to the southern trail, which is less exposed and ledgy.
Once I broke onto the ledges, the footing became a bit sketchy. There were places where the rock was covered in a solid layer of ice, with just enough snow to conceal it. Not good. The ice was hard enough to laugh at my snowshoes; they didn't bite into it at all. I zigzagged across friendly snow drifts as high as I dared, but was shy of the summit by maybe 100'.
But that was enough; views on Black Cap are good well before the summit, and it wasn't disappointing. I had to stop and add a few layers, the ledges were quite exposed. Heading down, I was pleased with my decision not to push the ascent. Descending is always more treacherous IMO, and I reached a spot that I had ascended easily but the more I looked at it the more dubious I became. I switched to spikes at this point, wishing I had full crampons. It was only a few feet, but the ice & rock did not look like it would be fun to fall on ... the spikes were enough, but it was still a little sketchy. After that, it was just a matter of walking the snowmobile-packed trail out to Hurricane Rd and down to the car.
Black Cap turned out to be a tougher hike than I'd expected, and following the Red Tail trail kept it from being a complete road walk. I'm grateful to whoever left the tracks I followed, I dont believe I could have followed the trail without those tracks, and that made it a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.
It occurred to me on the way out that I may have found the Ultimate Sledding Trail . Hurricane Mountain road is well packed by snowmobiles. I've tried sledding a little, and don't really enjoy it ( the pack gets in the way, and after a sprain or two I've decided its too dangerous for me ) but for those who do, I can't imagine a better hike :)