A Sunday Spent on Jackson

CLIMB MOUNTAINS, HIKE FORWARD, PUSH YOURSELF.

My life for the last 4 months has consisted of working incredibly long work days and work weeks. My schedule shifting from my typical Wednesday/Thursday's off to being a complete disaster in the month of January. Mostly due to leading a Winter Trip at the OBS. One of my favorite things to do in the winter time, so it was worth having a wacky schedule for a month.

Trish and I have corresponded back and forth for quite some time, trying to figure out when it would be possible for our schedules to line up so we could all hike together again. My winter trip for the OBS was cancelled so it freed up my entire weekend, which meant I had Sunday to hike with Trish, Alex, and Sage.

As always, we communicated early in the week discussing our options, checking in again mid-week, and then again the day before to figure out with weather conditions and any other activities what sort of hike we should plan for. Trish asked if I would be ok with something short because the girls had so much going on with school work. Especially Alex having midterms to study for. I was happy with anything.

We decided on Jackson. Short, easy, and right to the point. We planned to meet at the trail head parking lot around 7:30am. We were on trail just before 8:00am. As I waited for the girls to arrive 3 cars had pulled into the lot as well, and I had a feeling it was going to be a busy day on this trail.

I noticed only 2 gentleman start just before us. The rest I believe went ice climbing. I immediately put my micro-spikes on knowing the trail would be packed out for the most part and secondly because as much as I love my POW POW's in the winter to keep my feet warm and comfortable, they have the worst traction if any at all on the bottoms. Sage took the lead, Trish followed behind, Alex, and then myself.

I won't lie, I really do enjoy the tail end of a group hike more than leading. We started up the trail moving pretty fast, and with the temperatures that morning I heated up pretty quickly under my jacket. Shortly after getting around the first bend before it grades out a bit, we stopped to drop some layers. A few rocks pocking through the trail, and some slick spots of ice but still bare-bootable.

We all conversed back and forth, laughed, and kept on trekking towards the junction. Arriving at the junction we still had not run into anyone on trail. We continued upward and eventually making it to the section of glades before the ledges. This is where we spotted our first Gray Jays.

We continued on to the ledges not sure what to expect. They were completely packed out with some icy spots. All were avoidable though.

At the summit we were greeted by brand new signage, and a couple of Gray Jays just waiting to snatch up any crumbs we would leave behind, or any food we might have placed down not realizing they would come scoop it up.

We all took quite a few photos for the first few minutes we were there. Trish broke out her cheese for everyone. Jarlsberg even though it's not pronounced with a 'JAH' it still counts in my eyes. It also tasted amazing. Trish asked the girls to sit next to each other on the summit and placed a snack for the Gray Jays each on top of both Alex and Sages heads. This was an amazing photo op. I eventually asked if I could join in one of the photos.

As soon as I sat down next to Alex, one flew up landed on her head and pointed it's butt right at me. I laughed and said out loud "please just don't poop on our heads". We all laughed hysterically at the same moment one landed on my head and Trish snapped a great "in the moment" photo.

We were probably head the summit to ourselves for a good half hour before the 2 men I had seen start before us arrived, then shortly came 2 trail runners who took off in the direction of Mizpah Hut. We started to pack up our things and head back down the trail.

We talked about what the sort of number of people we would pass on the way down would be. I guessed 7, boy was I way off.

I was counting for a while, I hit 17 and then we hit a huge group of children in a group that was helping to get kids more active. This group was at minimum 15 people in size. I gave up there. So happy to see groups like that on trail, and getting kids a bit more active. Well worth the crowded trail in my own opinion.

We spent the majority of the way down on our bums sledding out, with a few big bumps that set the girls air born on their sleds which was quite entertaining. We were down and out by 11:30am. It was such a great day with amazing weather conditions and trail conditions. No need for anything more than light traction.

 

5.2miles down 1987.8 miles to go.

P.S. Does anyone have any idea why the cairn was removed on Jackson?