2/14/11 From The Nature Center

Snowing when we left home but the sun was peeking through the clouds when we got to the park. The rest of the day was a mix of clouds and sun with mild temperatures. Because of all the snow and uncertain conditions, we picked this area with it's many trails knowing worse case we could always just walk the loop road. We started from the nature center and walked the Jesup Path (pretty good footing) to the park loop road. The loop road had been well used by snowmobiles and was nicely packed. We walked up to the eastern end of the Great Meadow loop which is relatively new and not walked by us. No one had been on it and after sinking knee deep in the snow we left that trail for another day. We turned back west and followed the loop road to the Cadillac N. Ridge trail head and then turned back (we had no plan to do that trail after doing it last winter). We next tried the Gorge Trail, hoping to get as far as the Hemlock Trail ( the trail become treacherous even in summer further on) ,which we did. Snowshoers had preceded us a couple of days ago and the trial was fairly well packed. The Hemlock had had little use and we sank fairly deep in the snow and this section became a bit of a slog until we passed the Dorr N. Ridge Trail when it again had had enough use to pack the snow. At the Stratheden ( fairly good footing) we turned north and walked back to the loop road, taking that to the Hemlock Path/Road which we took back to where we had started.







Loop Road


Gorge Path

Hemlock Trail

A nice hike on a pleasant day 2-3/4 hours