Sunday, February 16, 2014

Another good night sleep and I wake up to bright sunlight outside the tent. The dodgy thermometer recorded it was only -5°F / -15°C overnight. From inside my sleeping bags I can see the shadows of my snowshoes, and wish there is some way of lighting the stove without getting out of the bag.

It’s calm outside too, at least so far. This is a great day to head up Eagle Mountain. Today is a lighter, quicker breakfast of oatmeal and lots of coffee. I gear up and pack my backpack with some zip on fleece pants, jacket, food, water, camera, etc. and snow shoe across the lake toward the mountain trail. This path leads me past the other campers on the lake, who are out and about near their camp and say hello.
The climb up Eagle Mt. is steep at first, but overall really not as bad as I remember from a few years ago. The snowshoe path was well packed as both the daytrippers and the other campers had gone up the day before. On this day I am the only one up there. The sky is mostly clear, the winds are modest even at the top, and it is beautiful. I work my way past the first lookout (and false summit) to the second, and on up to the plaque which is under a few inches of snow. I dust it off as a small engine plane flies overhead, possibly counting moose. I head back down to a space between the first and second overlook and blaze a trail out to the edge. I hang my Nikon from a branch and use a ski pole to point the lens so I can get proof that I was on top, then settle down for some lunch. The minute I take my snowshoes off, I posthole up to my thigh.

I hang out up there for a spell, then shed a few layers and start back down the mountain. Half way down I realize my awful mistake I’ve made for the day. In Sochi the Olympics are on, but I am standing on what could be one fantastic luge course, and I have two sleds sitting empty in camp! Crud....Why did I not think of this earlier?

I spent a little more time in the afternoon exploring the woods and swamps off the main trail, then back to camp for the evening. A little more firewood is collected and split, and by now the wind is back up and blowing from the south southwest. After watching it for a few minutes, I decide I do not need to move my tent, but I do move my stove a bit to get a better angle. As the sun sets the wind settles down, and I am convinced it will blow past my tent without blowing onto it, just barely. So far on this trip, like on my October trip to Cherokee where I first used my Snowtrekker (that trip did not count as the inaugural because there was no snow), the wind has shifted direction substantially at least once, if not twice a day. Over the summer I will be very tempted to have a second stove jack added on the opposite side so I always have way to point my stove.

A bit more trail mix and dram of whiskey, then a dinner of pad thai. Everything gets dried out an I enjoy the fire a bit longer than the previous nights.