A ridge of high pressure from Canada will continue for today but will peak and start to move east during the afternoon. High clouds will start to move in from a warm front moving up from the Ohio River Valley. The front will move through the area as early as Thursday afternoon. Precipitation will be in the from of snow and freezing rain early before becoming mostly rain. Rain will continue through Friday before turning to snow on the back end of the storm. A warming trend for the weekend though as another ridge briefly set up. Accumulations will be less than an inch over the forcast period
Jim Salge
Observer, Mount
Washington Observatory
Another gorgeous day! We were very happy with our progress so far, and after
today would have the bulk of the most exposed sections of the 4K routes
behind us.Abundant sunshine and gentle breezes would be the theme of the day, which allowed for a relaxed pace and lots of laughs and conversation with the folks we ran into on the trail.
Jeff
accompanied Cath and I along the Zealand road to the Hale Brook trail, where
he continued on the road as Cath and I hiked over Hale to meet up with him
at the hut. Andy would hike in from Lincoln woods to do the Bonds and meet
us somewhere on the ridge. It was a lovely hike through trees plastered
with snow right to ground level. We barebooted to the summit and used snowshoes
on the Lend-A-Hand trail.
At
Hale's summit, I performed the traditional "shirtless male on the cairn
being goofy" exercise, fortunately without breaking both ankles. Then
it was off to rendezvous with Jeff, who we found napping in luxury in the
sultry sunshine on the bench at Zealand Hut. We chatted with the hutmaster
for a bit, topped off our water, and were off again for the steep climb
to the Zeacliff viewpoint.
A
small herd (16 or so) of hikers had taken off from the hut earlier, headed
towards the Bonds, so we had the luxury of a pretty well packed trail
for most of the day. If I remember correctly, we needed shoes from somewhere
above Zeacliff all the way to Bondcliff. As the hiker herd made it's way
back, Jeff was in front for a good part of the way, forcing him to answer
repeatedly as to where we are going. A typical conversation would go something
like this:
Hiker : "Nice day! Where ya headed?"
Jeff : "Lincoln Woods"
One of two
general variations of disbelief would follow:
Variation #1: "Lincoln Woods? Where's that?"
Variation #2: "Lincoln Woods? Hah! GOOD LUCK! ( voice heavy with
sarcasm)"
And so it went.
We finally escaped
the scrutiny of the doubting Thomases as we passed over Guyot in our shirtsleeves,
marvelling at the amazingly calm and warm day. The only downside to the
sunny skies was the intense contrast and glare, where digital cameras have
a tough time capturing the range of light as well as slide film. I had been
spoiled by the past two days of exotic icy fogs and rime ice encrusted goodness.
Could be worse!
Dropping
our packs at the West Bond Spur junction, we met Drewski headed back to
Bond, and shortly thereafter, met up with Schorman, Hot N Sweaty, and another
hiker whose name escapes me.I still kick myself for missing the "photo of the day" at this meeting: Schorman kneeling at the feet of Cath Goodwin, mountain goddess. :)
Next Up - Day 4 - The Osceolas and Owl's Head!
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Jeff
on Guyot
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Summit
of West Bond
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HotNSweaty
& Schorman
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| Approaching Bondcliff |
Approaching
Bondcliff 2
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Jeff's Winter 48th, Round 1 |
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Trio
on West Bond
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Summit
of Bondcliff
|
Tim
on Bondcliff
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All images Copyright Tim Seaver © 2006