On the trail again!

Bob the cook ran me out to Jay Peak this morning. After he left guess who I saw, or rather, saw me, while I was putting on snowshoes? The guy who gave me a lift into Montgomery when I came down the peak in defeat. He was glad I was finishing it up and arranged for me to take the tram up the mountain with maintenance and communications techs. Awesome! It turns out that he is the ski school director. That ride saved me hours and lots of energy.

The weather was much better and on the summit I enjoyed the panarama. I got some photos and was able to see the rest of my route to Canada. It didn't look too bad. I began descending from from the station at 10:42. Last time I needed 1.5 hours to go the first .7 miles. Thanks to the snowshoes, this time it was a 39 minute trip and I was stopping for pictures.

Snowshoeing is hard though. In addition there were two other problems today. First I still can't always see where the trail is. This results in me wasting lots of time searching. This is due to heavy snow cover and downed and bent trees obscuring the way. The other problem is that there is lots of unconsolodated snow. It is soft and loose and difficult to travel through. Even tiny uphill sections take a long time.

That slowness is why I am sleeping under a tree tonight. I made it to the first shelter at 12:30 but couldn't get to the next one before it started getting dark. I won't risk getting lost and frustrated in all this snow. It is hard enough in the daylight. I just hope more doesn't come down tonight.