Sunny 46

We passed the Franklin Falls Cemetery and I figured that was the hill the folks online had been talking about. Still, I drove down the road a ways until we came to the causeway at Franklin Falls, so I turned around and drove back to the cemetery and backed into the driveway.

Quinn was annoyed at first. He didn't understand that we needed to create a channel of packed snow to have a proper slide down the hill. I lashed Sunny to a tree and slid down the hill by myself. My extra weight easily cut through the powder and mushed down the snow for our next run. Then Quinn and I both slid down with Sunny chasing behind. After that, Sunny and I waited at the bottom while Quinn did some solo sliding.

We ordered a cheeseburger and fries to share. The coffee was amazing. Behind Quinn you can see the roasting machine and on the table you can see the coffee mugs are huge. We shared a burger and fries which were both great. Quinn gave the burger 40 million stars and the fries a hundred billion stars, so I guess that's good.  The cafe does serve breakfast as well and I'm sure that's all delicious, too. I will absolutely be back here.

We arrived a bit after 1pm and were on trail by 1:20. There was just one other vehicle in the ledge trail parking area and the register said they were hiking both peaks.  Quinn and Sunny were raring to go, especially Sunny! I brought my snowshoes just in case and wore the big pack Jay had given me years ago so I'd have room for a bunch of extra gear.

The snow wasn't terribly deep and conditions were certainly slippery, but all of us had our claws on! The woods were absolutely gorgeous. The snow was falling and the wind was gusting gently, blowing it all around us like snow globe.

The climb started immediately and the photos, as usual, don't do the steepness justice. Quinn insisted on leading the way and showing Sunny which way to go. Initially, the hike follows a drainage for the first third of the hike up to the ledge.

The wind really started picking up as we crossed over to the drainage again. Quinn complained about the wind in his face and asked if we could cut the hike short. I said that we absolutely could, but got him to agree to hike up to the lake before turning around. 

The overlooks on the ledge are really awesome. I was pleasantly surprised that we could actually enjoy the vista across the valley with the weather.

We made it to Giant's Washbowl by 3pm. I was surprised by two things. First, it is big. Second, I was expecting a meadow. I don't know why I expected a meadow. The satellite maps do not show a meadow, but I'd never looked at the satellite maps for some reason; it's just what I always imagined. No, the lake surrounded on all sides by woods. 

I helped Quinn show the camera what he thought about the possibility of hiking to Giant Mt. tonight (or Nubble for that matter). He was certainly eager to get home and play a bit before bed time.

I snapped a picture of the campsite we could see. I'd been wondering if this would be a fun place to stay for a winter overnight. I'm not totally sure how I feel. It is a very quick descent back to the road if needed, but nowhere near as convenient as actual car camping. Pulling a sled would be problematic at best with some of the steepness involved in the climb. However, once you got up here, camping would probably be really nice considering fires are allowed here.

At first, Quinn took a little spill shuffling his feet down a snowy rock scramble. After hugging it out, we continued on and he took that fall as a lesson to better judge when to walk and when to slide. He did great after that, having fun butt-sliding down half the mountain. He did, unfortunately, lose a microspike on the trail. We didn't notice until we were nearly done. I did hike back up a bit to see if I could find it, but I had to give up on it.

I kept Sunny close at first, but once we arrived back to the drainage (and the danger of sliding off the ledge had largely passed) I cut him loose. The trail was too steep and the conditions too slippery to risk keeping him tethered. He was in heaven zigzagging back and forth through snowy woods. 

We arrived back at the car by 4pm, two and a half hours after we'd started. The other hikers hadn't passed us on the way down and I was a little concerned. As it turns out, they commented on a Facebook post later that day to let me know, they'd found Quinn's missing microspikes. I guess they'd started their hike at noon which is why their footprints hadn't been blasted away when we'd started.

I'd left a 6-pack of soda in the snow before we left and it was crisp and delicious. For the next two hours, Quinn enjoyed some tablet time while I listened to Dungeon Crawler Carl, then we wrapped up the day with some Chinese food. It was a perfect day with my besties.

I definitely want to enjoy more winter outdoors days with these goofballs. I haven't bought Quinn snowshoes yet, but it's definitely time.