Although a cold weekend, forecast said blue skies in Northern NY, and both were accurate! Holding off skiing Whiteface until Sunday, ideally above zero temps, really wanted to use snowshoes instead of micros for a change this season.
So - after breakfast in Jay (land of make believe site, great food and coffee!) and seeing just a few inches on snow on the ground, headed up from Wilmington four corners past Santa's Workshop/North Pole, the ASRC, took a right at the WF highway tollgate, and in a quarter mile on the right is the DEC sign to Cobble Lookout. Wide road, no parking issues on side of road, and a plow went by while parking without any dirty looks always a good thing.
One other car and tracks but they ended about 5 minutes in, at the ice cliffs. Broke trail the entire way. Not difficult as only 3 inches max of new snow, but wow the trees are covered and frozen and beautiful. Definately needed SS so right choice. Blue markers were covered with ice on the way in (heading East, from the West wind) so had to keep looking back to confirm on the trail. Second half of trail tougher to follow. Not hard, but not easy, and had to think a lot, and a bit of splitting up, one staying by last marker, the other finding the next one, which was most times out of sight. Took about 1 hour 10 minutes to reach the lookout. Awesome awesome views with 6 degrees and clear skies. 40 minutes back.
Wanting to play with some vertical on the SS, parked at Northwoods for Cobble Hill. Couple inches in snow by parking (total not new) but more in woods so good choice w/ SS again. Up via the short trail, down the longer loop by Lost Pond. The steep slabs were tough, had to use the rope, then above the rope about a foot of fresh slippery loose snow made it challenging. Definately not going down that! Amazing how hot 8 degrees feels when climbing that slab!
Overall day about 5 miles. Zero people at the Lookout trail in Wilmington (except the 2 climbers) all day. None. So quiet and alone. 4 people at Cobble Hill, 2 on SS, 2 on Nordic skis at the top. Great way to get the bugs out on SS and remember to wear less layers and keep them in the packs!
So - after breakfast in Jay (land of make believe site, great food and coffee!) and seeing just a few inches on snow on the ground, headed up from Wilmington four corners past Santa's Workshop/North Pole, the ASRC, took a right at the WF highway tollgate, and in a quarter mile on the right is the DEC sign to Cobble Lookout. Wide road, no parking issues on side of road, and a plow went by while parking without any dirty looks always a good thing.
One other car and tracks but they ended about 5 minutes in, at the ice cliffs. Broke trail the entire way. Not difficult as only 3 inches max of new snow, but wow the trees are covered and frozen and beautiful. Definately needed SS so right choice. Blue markers were covered with ice on the way in (heading East, from the West wind) so had to keep looking back to confirm on the trail. Second half of trail tougher to follow. Not hard, but not easy, and had to think a lot, and a bit of splitting up, one staying by last marker, the other finding the next one, which was most times out of sight. Took about 1 hour 10 minutes to reach the lookout. Awesome awesome views with 6 degrees and clear skies. 40 minutes back.
Wanting to play with some vertical on the SS, parked at Northwoods for Cobble Hill. Couple inches in snow by parking (total not new) but more in woods so good choice w/ SS again. Up via the short trail, down the longer loop by Lost Pond. The steep slabs were tough, had to use the rope, then above the rope about a foot of fresh slippery loose snow made it challenging. Definately not going down that! Amazing how hot 8 degrees feels when climbing that slab!
Overall day about 5 miles. Zero people at the Lookout trail in Wilmington (except the 2 climbers) all day. None. So quiet and alone. 4 people at Cobble Hill, 2 on SS, 2 on Nordic skis at the top. Great way to get the bugs out on SS and remember to wear less layers and keep them in the packs!
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