A week after our amazing New Zealand trip, we went for the first outdoor activity. It was summer in New Zealand in December and now in January it is in the middle of winter in New England in the United States. What a contrast!
Our first outdoor activity in 2020 was cross country skiing in the Greeley Lake area. Mr.N had informed me that it would be a short and easy trail. I am not good at XC skiing, but I accepted his offer based on the description.
<Greeley Lake Hike>
Type: Out and back
Distance: 4 miles
Elevation change: about +/- 300-400 feet
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| Starting skiing |
There are two trails to go to Greeley lake. One is a ski trail for XC skiing and snowshoeing and the other is for normal hiking. The snow forest was very quiet and pretty. The left picture is near the trailhead.
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| Trees with snow |
Every branch had snow on it. It looked like numerous white lines in front of me. Pretty!
The trail at first was relatively flat. I thought, "OK. This is doable."
This was soon not true for me. The trail got too steep and bumpy to me. So I had to go back. I loved to be in the snow, but somehow skiing is not a thing for me.
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| Greeley Lake |
So we decided to go to a lake via hiking trail with hiking boot with microspikes. For me hiking on foot was much more enjoyable, since I have time to look around.
Lake was frozen and covered with new snow. It was cool! (and literal cold).
There is a junction at the lake which goes to Mt. We got interested in doing some other time when it is sunny.
So we came back to this trail two weeks later. We snowshoed to the lake and continued climbing up to the Osceola East Peak.
<Osceola East Peak>
Type: Out and back
Distance: 5.7 miles
Elevation change: about +/- 2238 feet
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| snowshoes |
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| Nice view! |
Snowshoes and microspikes: snowshoes are great when snow is soft and fluffy. Snowshoes prevent feet from sinking into the snow. However, when a trail is too steep, then don't work well. Indeed on the way up to Osceola peak, the trail got very steep and we had to change our snowshoes to microspikes. It was cumbersome, but the spot we stopped to change had a great view. Mountain range was covered with rolling clouds. The clouds was reflecting the morning sun.
There was a couple who passed us. Their snowshoes were cool. They are designed to climb on a steep trail. Ours are not.
Anyway, after very steep climb, we reached the top! The view was great.
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| At the top |
Although it was cold, it was worth coming. We enjoyed the view for a while on the summit.
Then we started descending. Grrr. Going up is hard, which means going down is even harder! We should have brought crampons. The couple was ahead of us and they had crampons. Even with crampons it was hard. The lady said, "Some people slide down here, but I don't know how to stop!" Indeed. How can they stop without ice axe?
Maybe we come back here in summer again. Nice hike!
#greeleylake #newhampshire #newengland #hiking
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