Last weekend, Sunny had issues with iceballs on his feet even though I thought I'd prepped him well enough. Wendy helped me pick out a razor and a treatment for the paws. Although we had a lot of family stuff this weekend, I was lucky enough to be able to have another go at Erebus this weekend. The temperatures were forecast to be 30 degrees warmer than last weekend. I assumed the trail conditions would be ice tracks with puddles and slush. I was so certain of this that I put my microspikes on my boots the night before. I left my snowpants at home this time because I didn't want to get overheated in the 35-40 Farenheit temps.
Let's gooooooooooo...!
The trails were a bit different than I thought they'd be. The ice was almost completely gone, replaced with a crunchy, messy, crust. The snow itself was wet; very wet. I took off my microspikes and put on my snowshoes. I also stripped off my windbreaker despite the bit of snow falling from the trees. I had plenty of layers to replace if we got wet.
The streams were moving. At first, I was able to avoid much of the wetness since Dacy Clearing Rd. and the initial path after the trailhead was pretty well-worn by hikers going up Sleeping Beauty.
The woods were quite pretty with the moving water and fog steaming off the snow.
A closer shot of this lovely frozen waterfall.
Bumps Pond boasted a lovely layer of slush on its surface.
There are a couple of options for claiming Erebus. You can take the Northern route which is longer or the Southern route which is shorter, but has a bit more elevation loss along the way. I decided that the extra miles weren't worth avoiding that little bit of elevation change.
The Southern trail to Erebus hadn't been used since the last snow or two. It was officially time to break trail.
Sunny rudely post-holed much of the way to Erebus. For me, the descent along the side of the ridge was frustrating. My snowshoes were absolutely necessary, but each step would slide forward a bit, and when I lifted my leg up, it would bring a bunch of heavy snow with it. It was very tough going and my feet quickly got soaked. Breaking the trail to Erebus was like wading through a very cold stream.
As I walked past this swamp at the low point of the trail, I realized that the trail was definitely on the other side. "There is no way at all to go back, must go forward," is something I should never say, but often do. Fortunately, we managed to find a place to cross without backtracking.
The climb to the summit was tiring in the wet snow, but less annoying than the descent. The "official" summit is about 200' of elevation below the true summit. I started to climb up a bit before I realized that Sunny and I were getting wet swimming through this wet snow. Without snowpants and with wet socks, and unsure at how Sunny would take to it, I decided to forego the struggle of climbing the rest of the way.
Thanks, Dad.
The red trail across the face of Erebus is for hikers, snowmobilers, and Thestrals.
Oh, look. A bridge. Weird.
Sunny and I were starting to get tuckered out by the time we got back to the top of the ridge. However, today ascending was much less frustrating than descending. It was during the return trip from Erebus that Sunny started to pace behind me instead of ranging ahead. That's a sure sign that he's starting to get tired or is uncomfortable. I checked his paws again and they seemed clear of ice, so I figured it was the former.
The path up Sleeping Beauty was beautiful in the mist and althought the climb was a little bit of a trudge, it was mostly broken out by hikers. When I'm on a mission, I do tend to forget to stop and remember why we're out there, so I made sure we routinely stopped to feel the peacefulness of the place.
The summit was socked-in, but very warm and the wind was calm. Another hiker and his pup, Dacks, joined us and Sunny said hello.
A dry pair of socks was very welcome. The Darn Tough socks served me well and my feet felt pretty good at this point. The thicker woolies, though, gave me a blister on the back of my feet on the way back to the car. I'll probably pick up more pairs of the Darn Tough so I can have a change of socks when I need it.
Sunny, atop his Throne of Judgement.
After eight miles of snow and wet, the hike back to the car was a hell of a trudge. It took us longer to hike the mile and a half from the Dacy Clearing to the Hogtown trailhead than it had taken us to hike to Bump's Pond earlier. I actually put on music for the last mile.
Although the conditions were a bit gross, there were quite a few lovely moments on this hike and the ol' brain definitely feels good today. I'm super glad that I have Erebus sorted.
I had it in my head to get all the Winter 12ster done this year but I'm not going to push it. Obviously, it'll be easy to hike Black, Buck, and Thomas throughout the remaining weeks, but I'm not so sure about the Southern Tongue hike. It's a long one and I really don't think I'd want to do it in the conditions we had today. I actually think the hike would have been easier last week when it was cold. If the right conditions come up, I'll do it, but if not, I'll wait until next year. I still do want to do the Tongue Range in the winter because I really don't like the idea of Sunny flushing out a rattlesnake.
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