First Hike of 2013

It was a bit icy and treacherous today, but we covered about 7 miles total over 4.5 hours (including photo breaks, lunch, etc.).  The route itself (Washburn to Undercliff to Brook to Cornish) was about 5 miles.

It was a little tricky to spot the white blazes of the Washburn trail.

Beautiful sunshine, stark black and white of stone and snow.

It was slow going up the Washburn trail, and it was a lot further to the Undercliff trail than I remembered (and further than it looked on the map).  I thought we had overshot and simply missed the turn-off -- difficult though that was to imagine.  Then we met another hiker who had been keeping an eye out for the yellow trail as well.  He talked us into at least half-hoping that maybe it was still up ahead.  And sure enough, another 5 minutes later, there it was.  As big as life and twice as natural.  Impossible to miss, just as I remembered.  Hooray!

We were on the yellow trail for quite a long stretch, and enjoyed our lunch at a scenic overlook.  The conditions were generally more favorable (albeit with a few icy patches) and the yellow blazes were easy to follow.  But by the time we got to the Brook trail, where we could take a .6 mile detour to see some really cool icicle formations at the end of the Undercliff trail, we decided it would be better to conserve our energy and head back into town.

Luckily we were able to see some cool icicles en route anyway.  (Although really - aren't all icicles cool, by definition?)

I thought this looked like turrets of a castle

Icicles along the Brook trail (in the brook itself)

Icicle formations along the Cornish trail

large icicle formation

close-up

 After a leisurely dinner at the local brasserie, we caught the train back to NYC.