Big Lyons Falls Trek

...And it snowed another five inches on top of what we already had here on the ground so what else was left to do but go snowshoeing I guess!  When I have a whole day to kill by myself I love nothing more than to get away and enjoy a long physical soul-cleansing session in the wild.  

The mode of transport doesn't matter much to me as long it's under my own power.  I'll be honest when it's cold I don't like riding bikes much and there are much better ways to recreate in the winter. With nearly a foot and a half of the white stuff snowshoes are the obvious choice.

  

The previous night I decided to head for Mohican State Park because it is the largest tract of unspoiled land nearest to me.  I parked in the empty campground along State Route 3 at the far eastern end of the park.  My plan was to hike up the Hemlock Trail to the primitive campground, across the covered bridge and on to Lyons Falls to look for ice formations. 

I got an early start for me anyway and hit the trail at 9:30 am. The air was crisp and cold and much of the valley was shaded by the high hills on the south side of the gorge.  The sky was blue and the sun was shining bright promising a good day to be in the woods.

Judging by the three inches of fresh snow covering the tracks of the last hikers on the trail I was the first person to come through the area in a day or two.  In the summer this park is full of people making noise and enjoying the park.  While that is good I like solitude and quiet and I find that in spades when I venture out in the off season.

  

Just me and the wild life.

The Hemlock trail winds two miles along the Clear Fork of the Mohican River and ends at the primitive camp.  From there its another mile along the camp road to the covered bridge.  Early on the snow was light and powdery and the going was pretty easy.  

When I got to the camp road I found the only tracks were from snow machines.  This gave me a break from the snowshoes and I could walk along easy in my pack boots on the hard pack.

Here's a shot of a picnic table that shows the depth of the snow:

Soon I rounded a bend and the bridge came into view.  It looks great with a thick blanket of snow on top!

View from the covered bridge looking  back downstream the way I had come.

Once across the bridge I put my snowshoes back on and picked up the trail towards Big Lyons falls.  These hills are very old and most have been rounded off smooth over time but in places the sandstone rim of the gorge is still visible.  Another reason I love coming to the park in winter is because the understory is all open and it is much easier to see the lay of the land. 

I stopped often to marvel at the silence. There was no wind at all and tucked down into the valley I couldn't hear any man made sound except for the occasional airplane passing overhead.  What sounds I could hear were the chirps of nut hatches and other small birds who I'm sure could sense the coming of spring.  I saw a few hawks and lots of deer trails but never saw any throughout the day.

A smaller drainage climbs up away from the Clear Fork and up this ravine is where the overhang is that creates Big Lyons Falls.  

I like coming to this place every winter and seeing the difference in the ice formations from year to year.  This time around I found a huge column of ice rising all the way to the rim.  A little more impressive than what I documented a couple years ago. 

There was some water running down the outside of the column but there must have been hollow spaces on the inside because I could hear drips and drops echoing and sounding much like a leaky toilet tank. 

I took a break here and ate my lunch careful not to stand under any of the big icicles which from time to time a small bit would fall and smash into the rocks below. 

Because of the overhang of rock it was possible to walk all around the massive stack of ice and from the cave side the column was back lit by the bright sky.  The aquamarine color was very pretty. 

This view I captured from the top of the staircase visible in the previous photo.  I tried to get a bit of the trees in the frame to show the scale.

It didn't take long to cool down so soon I was back down the trail heading ever so slightly downhill.  The temperature rose during the day and the snow went from fluffy to heavy and wet. If I stayed in the path I cut earlier in the day it wasn't to bad but if I ventured off trail the snow it didn't take long for the wet snow to pack up around the binding straps and in the wire mesh of the shoes.

Off-trail steps displace 4" -5" of snow.

Even with the difficulty of the wet snow I couldn't imagine this eight mile slog with just winter boots on.  Yet again I'm amazed at how perfect the snowshoe is for traversing deep snow.  

Here I easily negotiated a big pile of logs that would have been much trickier with regular foot gear and in any other season.  I've had a blast with these cheap army surplus snowshoes and I've certainly got my moneys worth but with the places I like to go a pair of modern shoes is starting to appeal to me more and more.  The flat fabric webbing of modern shoes would be less prone to packing up with wet snow and a more compact shoe would be easier to maneuver on tight trails and off track also. 

5 hours and 20 minutes later I made it back to the trail head tired but intensely satisfied with the day's adventure.  Every so often a beautiful day full of solitude and natural beauty mixes with the sense of euphoria hard won through long physical exertion and stirs something deep inside.  It's hard to put into words but I know I really dig it.

Snowshoes!

About a week ago the string of single digit high temperatures let up enough to allow us out for some snowshoe action.  The Road Queen had never been out on snowshoes before and we both love spending time on winter hikes so I knew she would like it.  One of the greatest things about snow shoes is the zero learning curve.  The hardest part is strapping them to your boots and that really isn't much of a problem once you've done it a time or two.

The day after a huge snowstorm we took a short drive to the Clear Fork reservoir where on the north side of the lake is a strip of woods about two miles long. This is the perfect place to spend a couple hours getting close to nature.  As I figured the RoadQueen took the snowshoes like it was second nature and we were off on our winter time adventure.

Violent summer storms have taken their toll on the trees around the area.  I've seen more blow downs and storm damage in the places I frequent over the past few years than I ever remember.

For a long while we noticed deer tracks in the fresh snow and found that they were traveling generally the same direction as us. Mentioning that it would nice to see some deer no sooner had we crested the next small rise we spotted the white tails up ahead. 

This land is public hunting area but hikers, Dog walkers and other nature loving people are always passing through so the deer are used to human activity and don't usually explode with white flags flying and make for the next township at first contact. They'll retreat cautiously and keep a comfortable hundred yard buffer.  I managed to get a shot of the group with my camera phone.

Another denizen of the forest we weren't lucky enough to spot but we did hear all afternoon were various woodpeckers.  The RoadQueen did catch a glimpse of the common Downy woodpecker.  What really caught our attention was the loud powerful staccato pounding of a much larger bird.  I'm sure it was a Pileated woodpecker because I've seen them before in this woods.  They are timid and usually stop pounding and hide out on the backside of their tree when people approach.  Although we never got to see the bird we did notice his handiwork.

      

More woodpecker sign

We ended up snowshoeing a total of about three miles. Of course we're all ready for spring by this point but getting out and doing something fun like snowshoeing makes it all a little more bearable.  

New Years Weekend Recap

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season.  The break was nice but there was not much sitting around for me.  Visiting with family, starting some projects around the house and of course snow shoeing; my new favorite winter time fitness activity.

Sunday I took my son Wyatt out for his first time snowshoe hike.  We got out just as the sun was setting and watched the stars come out. 

We visited a city park just 5 minutes from home proving one of the big benefits of snowshoes; Anywhere there is a bunch of snow is a good place to go.

  Wyatt is slightly tall and lanky for his eleven years and this build makes him perfect for snow shoes.  He took right off with it and said he thought the experience was pretty cool.  He liked seeing all the animal tracks in the snow and we had fun trying to identify the critters who left the various trails.

I love playing by myself in the great outdoors but taking my son out and introducing him to new experiences is most rewarding.  It's probably my favorite part of being a parent.

--

Monday was New Year's Eve and by this time I had been out snowshoeing three days in a row and I was beginning to feel it in my legs so I spent the day inside.  I did head down to my basement gym and got in a solid shoulder workout.

New Year's day I was ready for more so I drove out to hike the Stoller Road Trail. Stretching along two miles of the north shore of Clear Fork Reservoir this trail system is about ten miles from my house so even though it is a short trail it's close to home and a fun place for a hike or bike.

The entire north shore is wooded so only in the winter when the leaves are down is the shoreline visible for any distance.

Whitetail Deer are plentiful in the area.  While I was hoping to see some on my hike the elusive big game stayed out of sight.  Their sign was everywhere though. I call this picture the whitetail highway.  All of these tracks were made from hoofs.
 

My goal on this outing was to spend less time on established trails and more time breaking trail.  On my previous hikes I noticed that while moving the back of the shoe kicks up some snow and I found that after a while the back of my pants above my boots was getting wet.  I wore my gaiters and that solved that problem.

It is super easy to walk on trails that are already beat in by booted feet but I think that's kind of missing the point with snowshoes.  They truly excel where there is no trail and that I think is what makes them so much fun.  I spent much of the day honing my off trail bushwhacking skills.  The picture below shows where I descended a ten foot bank crossing a ravine.  The angle was so steep I had to go sideways and "stair step" down the hill.  Basically it's the same technique I use while on skis
 

Log hopping is a breeze with snow shoes on.  I've gone over logs and tree branches on my cross country skis but its a much trickier affair usually accompanied by much falling down.  On this trek I crossed numerous gullies, ravines and downed logs and only lost my balance once and had to brush off the white stuff.

 

The only thing I have to remember is to make a good strong jump off the top of the log so that the tails of the snowshoes clear.  The landing is always nice and soft because of the large footprint of the snowshoe absorbs the momentum as I land in the deep snow.  It's actually a lot of fun!

Another curious thing I noticed that took some getting used to was coming across smaller logs laying on the forest floor.  As the ten inches of snow continued to fall it piled up on top of the log as well as the surrounding ground marking the position of the wood beneath in a long ridge.  As I approached I stepped down squarely on the ridge always expecting to feel the teeter-toter effect as my foot came in contact with the log.  Instead what happens is the snowshoe squashes down the snow ridge and then  the large surface area of the shoe comes to rest on the snow on each side of the log and in most cases I couldn't even feel the wood underneath.  If the log's diameter was bigger than the amount of snowfall then I would bottom out and rock on top of the log.  It's a cool effect of the snowshoe that I had no idea of and another example of how they work so well for off trail maneuvering.

  

In a few short days I've managed to cover about 12 miles with these funny looking things strapped to my feet.  And honestly I can't remember ever having so much fun getting around under my own steam without a bicycle between my legs.  Now I have walked in a variety of snow conditions from fresh powder to three day old crust.  At Mohican early in the day the snow was wet and I experienced it packing up under my heel like a big hockey puck stuck in the lattice of the shoe.  Later in the afternoon the temperature dropped and snow quit packing up.  For $40 dollars I've had a huge amount of fun trying out a traditional shaped snowshoe and now I have some practical experience to guide me in a potential search for a pair of modern shoes.  I'm smitten with the winter sport of snowshoeing and definitely see more of it in my future.
    



The winter landscape is beautiful. 

Snowshoes -- Mohican State Park

 

After a late start yesterday morning I arrived at the trail head at Mohican Sate Park.  We received another inch or two of fresh snow overnight bringing the total up to eight inches or more so I was excited for some adventure.  After spending several amazing hours out in the snowy woods with my new snow shoes I am certain I made the right decision in trying out this new to me form of winter recreation.
  

 

The equestrian trail network is where I spend most of my time when I come to Mohican in the wintertime.  Lots of hills, miles of wide well marked trails and of course no horses this time of year makes it a perfect place to ski or snowshoe and enjoy the peacefulness and tranquility of the winter woods.  The picture above is looking back through the staging area towards the entrance.  The only park users so far are a lone hiker, me and a couple cross country skiers.



 

The temperature was a perfect 29 degrees F. so a poly base layer, thermal top and my Polartec fleece regulated my body heat perfectly.  I only worked up excessive temperature on a couple of the longer climbs.  I had along my ski gloves but they spent most of the trip hanging off my belt.  Like most cold weather activities perfecting the kit takes a little trial and error but I think I got pretty close for the conditions on this trip.



 

I hiked the 4.6 mile red trail which crosses the Pine Run in a couple places.  I  was a bit surprised to find the creek full of water and rushing along nicely.  It's early in the winter season and not that long ago we got days of rain so I should have expected to find the creek in this condition. 

 

Typically later in the season the flow rate slows down and the creek freezes over at the trail crossings making getting across a breeze on skis which is usually how I encounter the waterway.  Today Pine Run offered up a bit more of a challenge.  Luckily I was wearing my waterproof pac boots and I found a spot just upstream where I could make my crossing.  I removed the snow shoes and gripping them at the front with the tails down I used them like hiking poles to help steady myself as I stepped carefully through the icy water.

  

 

Safely on the other side and back up to the trail I took a short a break and ate a snack while I had my snow shoes off.  By the time I ate my rice noodles, squirted an espresso Gu pack and plenty of water from the Camelback I was already cooling down so I got back on the move.

 

 I like this trail system because it traverses all the features of the surrounding land from valley bottoms to ridge tops.  There is plenty of climbing and descending to keep things interesting and make it a workout.  I'm happy to report that even on the steepest terrain I encountered traction was not a problem; the snow shoes gripping much like mountain bike tires on dry dirt. 

 

 

The cross country skiers never made it further than the Pine Run so from then on the only tracks I saw were whitetail dear, rabbits and other small critters. 

 

I did take a few off trail excursions to test the snowshoes in the rough stuff.  My shoes are huge by modern standards as they are the traditional shape and nearly four feet long.  I expected them to cumbersome in close quarters but actually I found it very easy to maneuver through the forest.  I like to get off the trail and do so often with my cross country skis but I have discovered that snow shoes really work well for this type of work.  The wide shape of the shoe acts much like a big fender and allowed me to squash flat tiny saplings and thorny brambles before they got caught up in my pants. Unlike long skis the snowshoes are much easier to turn and don't seem to snag on branches and vegetation near as easy. 

 

Like I mentioned in my last post from my first trip out I'm blown away by the floatation and stability provided by the snowshoe and the ease at which I can move through the woods.  You're not going to twist an ankle with these things strapped to your feet.

 

 

Making my way westward through a large stand of Eastern Hemlock the canopy suddenly opened up and I noticed something strange was going on with the big pines.  In an area of about a hundred yards in diameter many of the trees had their branches stripped off and many trunks were snapped off cleanly at various heights.  I surmise that a tornado touched down in this very spot and shredded the forest.  I stood in awe for long time marveling at the destructive power of nature. It must have been quite an event.



 

Continuing on my trek I descended back into the valley and met up with the Pine Run again.  At this crossing the water was shallow and the bottom seemed covered with flat rocks so I took a chance and simply crossed through the water with the snow shoes on.  In this picture I'm balanced on a snow covered log or something and thought it would make a neat photograph.



 

I love the tracks left behind in the snow.  They remind me of a sea turtle track left in beach sand.  I was always curious about snowshoeing and thought a constant effort had to be made to keep the feet apart and walk slightly bow legged.  I must have a natural wide stance because I don't feel like my stride is any different and only rarely do I hear the metallic clack of the frames hitting each other in passing if my feet do come too close together.



 

I timed myself just right and was making the final climb out the valley as dusk settled in bathing the forest in that peculiar shade of blue that slowly deepens as night falls.



 

 

For the sake of curiosity I unstrapped the shoes and walked the last hundred yards through the staging area with just the pac boots.  I wanted to see if my enthusiasm was just a result of the newness and novelty of this winter sport I'm just discovering or do snow shoes really make that much difference?  That 100 yard slog in the pac boots was awful.  With out the stability of the big flat platforms each step was unsteady and it felt like most of my effort was wasted as the boot simply slid around in the snow.  With each step my foot sunk all the way down requiring the exaggerated marching like step that gets old real fast.  The snowshoes allow a much more normal walking like pace. 

 

My final verdict: Snowshoes Rock!

 

One last thing I'd like to comment about after a good nights rest following this three and a half hour hike is any soreness or lack thereof experienced from the exercise.  I read that snowshoeing takes some getting used to and some soreness especially around the hips could be experienced.  I'm happy to report that I feel great with just an overall dull tightness in my legs like all I need is a few minutes of stretching throughout the day today.  I've got a theory that my regular sessions on the elliptical trainer the past few months have conditioned my lower body perfectly for motion of snowshoeing.  The mechanics of both activities are very similar.