Hike 23

January 27, 2016

Started the day with a stack of waffles. A good warm breakfast before crosschecking our gear is always a good idea.

Met Duane in the parking lot near the ORV trailhead shortly after 8:00 AM. We waited and discussed the weather, nuclear energy, and his Now dear departed truck.

at 8:30 we piled into my truck and made our Way to the intersection of the NCT and cinder hill Rd.

Our snowshoes sunk into the snow yet kept us 5 or 6 inches aloft the ground, leaving the truck behind amid the buzzing snowmobiles we set out. Duane constantly taking photos and me taking photos of he taking photos we made our way meandering through the snow covered branches.

Our conversation died as it left us as the fresh virgin snow absorbed all sound around us and we heard nothing but the whipping wind far above in the treetops and the occasional whine of an engine in the distance.

Linus broke trail for us for the first half mile or so and exhausted plopped down for a rest and we took a photo op. shortly thereafter Duane plopped down on accident because his snowshoes were less familiar to him than his feet.

Picking our way along the trail relying heavily on the blue blazes we found them often snow covered or difficult to pick out and at one point we completely lost the trail in a section that badly needs re-blazing.

Once we reached Whispering pines drive we took a selfie because that’s just what you do these days…right?

We stopped at Bocook rd to have lunch, Linus and I had Cheese and Crackers and I had a Frosted Gingerbread Cliff bar (which by the way is very, very good) and Duane had some bars of the Cliff variety.

By this point, I had stripped and stowed my outer layer

as we proceeded into a section that I had re-blazed i constantly pointed out to Duane my handiwork until we came across one blaze that someone was unhappy with.

Shortly thereafter when crossing a snowmobile trail, we stopped for a drink of water and heard voices. Coming up the trail behind us we saw Bill and Bob Courtois. We chatted a bit and they commented on how nicely we had broken trail for them. We graciously allowed them to lead and those guys can move, that or we were tired.

They had left their car near the Scholl Rd Trail Crossing.

We ventured on through the snow until we crossed a Snowmobile Highway, Knowing we were nearly back we trudged on to the car. We drove back to the truck and took our funny hats picture.