There hadn't been fresh snow for a little while so the trail was well broken in and easy to follow. The woods were incredibly quiet and peaceful as we started up the mostly gentle incline towards the summit. We crossed over the mostly ice and snow covered brook and also crossed over the snowmobile trail after having hiked about a mile. There weren't any snowmobilers at the time so the woods remained very quiet and still as we carried on.
After passing one of the shelters for backpackers to camp at, the trail began to get noticeably steeper and also less broken in. This slowed our pace a little bit, but still wasn't overly strenuous. We took a quick stop at the vista, which gave me a chance to take a few pictures and swap my heavy insulated gloves for a thinner pair.
After our stop at the vista we carried on up the mountain and fought off the many branches that had grown into the trail. Although we may have been able to walk under some of them if not for the thick base of snow we were walking on. Eventually we passed a couple other hikers (the only others we saw on the trail that day) and the terrain briefly flattened out until we got to the ski area where we had to go the last quarter of a mile while watching the skiers and snowboarders casually glide down as we trudged upwards.
We hadn't felt any wind the entire day until we reached the summit. The combination of the relatively cold breeze and the fact that our snowshoes were a little out of place with the skis and snowboards led us to start heading back down pretty quickly after taking a few quick pictures of the impressive view.
The hike back downhill was refreshingly easy after all the work getting uphill. Even with the snack break we took when we got back to the shelter the trip down only took about an hour and a half. The hike ended up being 6 miles and taking a little over 4 hours.
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| Angela at the summit. |
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| That hat looks good everywhere. |
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| Long Trail / Appalachian Trail signage on some old concrete. |
