North Crocker (3/5/22)
Winter is not my favorite time of year. I suffer from a mild case of SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, which basically means that my mood declines in the winter months. December isn't that bad thanks to the holidays, and in January the winter still seems full of possibilities like skiing or ice skating. By the time the season turns to February and March, though, it's rough. Living in Maine makes it especially hard, because we get so much less sunlight than places to the south. I was feeling it a lot this week, so I knew that I had to get out for a hike this weekend to help lift my spirits.
The choices were limited. I have finished every winter peak in New Hampshire except Tecumseh, and I am saving that one. Vermont is too far away. Thus, my attention turned to the peaks I still had to finish in Maine. For peaks that are available without a permit, I had three options. The first option was Abraham, but I still haven't worked out the logistical plan for how to drive to that one. The second option was Sugarloaf and Spaulding, but that was going to be a long, tough hike, and I am not sure what the process is for hiking Sugarloaf during ski season. That left North Crocker, South Crocker, and Redington. It was going to be a tough hike in its own right. AllTrails had the total mileage at 13.5 miles with 5000 feet of elevation gain. FarOut had it as even worse than that. Still, if the AllTrails numbers were right, then it's within my winter range under really good conditions, and the day was supposed to be quite nice.
Knowing how hard the day was going to be, I packed light. I had the lightest pack I have carried in winter in a long time. I didn't carry my sleeping bag (quilt, technically), sleeping pad, fleece, or rain pants. I also cut out a few other non-essentials like my ski goggles and my backup set of hand and foot warmers. Of course, leaving all that emergency gear at home meant that I had to make good decisions and not take excessive risks.
I got up early to drive up to Carrabassett Valley. Traffic was light that early, but I did run into a few crazy drivers. At one point, there was an Audi SUV in front of me, and a black Volkswagen in front of them. The Volkswagen wasn't going very fast, so when they hit a passing zone, the Audi slid out to pass. Well, the Volkswagen must have taken that as a personal affront to their honor, because they slammed their foot down on the gas. Smoke starting churning out of their tailpipe as they accelerated. Rather than get into a race, the Audi wisely slid back into line in front of me. Some drivers are truly awful.
On my way up, the temperature swung wildly. North of Auburn, it dropped down as low as -4, but it recovered around Livermore Falls to about 7 degrees. None of this surprised me, as I dealt with the same things when driving up to the Maine High Peaks Region last year. The temperature had finally settled to a little above 10 degrees at the trailhead.
When I got out of the car, it brought back memories. This was the spot where I first met Gazelle, Mack, Weebles, and Salt Lick on the AT last summer. Of course, back then it was warm. Now, it was quite cold, and to make things more complicated, I couldn't find the trail. I knew roughly where it was from last summer, but I didn't see it. I took this to be a bad sign. I had been debating about spikes or snowshoes, but this settled the debate. It was going to be snowshoes. I just left the spikes in the car. I knew I wouldn't need them.
Like Old Speck a few weeks ago, this trail started by climbing hard. It caught me a little off guard, because I had never actually hiked this section of trail in this direction before. Towards the beginning, it was clear that someone had hiked it fairly recently, as there were some tracks. This meant that I was doing a little trail breaking, but not a lot.
Eventually, the trail leveled off into a nice ridge section. By this point, the other tracks were gone, and I was breaking trail. My new snowshoes were continuing to do a great job, and I was making good progress. Still, I was burning energy faster than I could afford to, and I kept thinking that I needed to make sure that I didn't do anything stupid and try to push myself too hard. If I did, I might wind up in a situation where I couldn't get back out.
As I climbed higher, I became aware that the snow pack was getting very deep. This caused a few issues. First, I was constantly battling tree branches that should have been above my head. Last summer, they would have been. Now, however, they were directly in my path. To make matters worse, many of them were sagging with snow. I spent a lot of time knocking snow off tree branches so that I could pass.
Second, the snow was so deep and unbroken that I was starting to sink in it. I became convinced that I was the first person who had attempted to break this part of the AT all winter. Even with my snowshoes, I was often sinking down a foot or so. Breaking a couple inches like I was doing at the beginning was manageable. Breaking a foot was not. I knew I couldn't do that much trail breaking and still be able to hit all three peaks. I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably only get North Crocker.
On the plus side, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, and that did lift my spirits. On occasion I looked around and thought how lucky I was to be able to be out there at all, even if the trail was very difficult. I was also happy at how good my trail-finding skills have become. Even with no tracks to follow, I never lost the trail.
North Crocker doesn't have a view from the summit, but it does have a lookout. The view back over Carrabassett Valley from there was beautiful. I couldn't see Sugarloaf from my vantage point, but the rest of the image was still impressive.
The last mile to the summit was very difficult, and I was going very slow. It took me probably an hour to complete that last mile, well below my usual standards. I wasn't helped by the fact that massive snow drifts guarded the last five hundred feet. Still, I was very happy when I finally hit the summit. I had already decided that I wasn't going to do any more peaks that day, so it was basically all downhill from there.
I stopped for a snack break at the summit. With the calories I was burning, I was also burning through my snacks. By the end of the hike, I had actually eaten every snack I had brought with me except for my emergency rations. Still, the break was nice, and the conditions at the summit were mild and peaceful.
My descent was quick, but not nearly as fast as last week's. There were two reasons for this. First of all, I had lots of time, so there was no need to descend as fast. Secondly, it's harder to go fast in snowshoes than it is in spikes. On the descent, I did struggle a bit with my snowshoes slipping in the loose snow. I think the uneven terrain had a lot to do with it.
The other thing that was strange about the descent was the temperature change. When I began my descent, I was so cold that I almost considered putting my headband on. Once I got back to the ridge line, though, the sun was beating down and I was so warm that I took off my gloves (and not just to put them on the end of my poles for a picture). When I got back to the car, the temperature was 31 degrees. Not warm, certainly, but a heck of a lot warmer than when I started.
Also, I realized afterwards that this hike came with a strange distinction. During the entire hike, I never took off my pack. Not once. Everything I needed to access was available on the front of the pack, so I never had to dig into the pack. Really, except for emergency supplies, the only thing in the pack was my puffy jacket anyway, and I certainly didn't need that.
Another odd distinction to this hike is that I was the only one on the mountain. I didn't see another hiker or their tracks all day. I actually don't enjoy that, as I feel safer when there are other people on the mountain with me, but there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn't force other people to hike.
Overall, despite the fact that I didn't achieve all my goals, I still consider the hike a success. I enjoyed being outside on a beautiful day with fantastic scenery, I got some good exercise, and I did still tag at least one peak. Until next time, always remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings!
Comments
Post a Comment