Pierce & Eisenhower
January 10, 2009
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Stellar Day!
We could stop there as that COMPLETELY sums up the trip, but I’ll work on sharing a few more details. Artic air actually was making the temps decrease after sunrise, and it was approx –9 at Clinton Road Parking Lot when we met for our ‘relaxed’ 9am start. The plan was to reach Pierce, and weather permitting head over to Eisenhower. Then either down Edmunds or back retracing our steps. The brave group of hardy souls to keep us company today included Trish (of TrishandAlex), J&J, RocksnRolls, Madriver, and our buddies Mark and Jeff. A great mix of hikers with exceptional knowledge, skills and most important – high entertainment value.
Moments into the hike we started to forget about the cold as we admired the forest around us. The sun was starting to peak through the snow-covered trees and sky was a lovely deep blue. The trail was fairly well-tracked and we warmed up fairly quickly. The trip to Pierce was a reasonable pace but with frequent stops to admire our surroundings and take advantage of the many photo ops. We were entertained by the Canada Jays at the split for Mitzpah hut – a new experience for Trish. Jackets, goggles, balaclava’s and heavier gear came out as we neared treeline. And just in time to give us up-to-date trail conditions, Keith and Julie met up with us as they were returning from Ike from their early morning hike.
Crystal clear skies and we had amazing views as we rounded the corner. Eisenhower was beckoning us, and the even the towers on Washington looked to be well within reach. Heading up to the Pierce summit the trail was pretty wind-blown, rather rocky and icy. But we quickly reached the summit and celebrated with a few treats and victory photos. At the summit we ran into Farmer, and Silver Fox. Always great to put a real person to the avatar and postings that we read!
Up to this point, we’d been about 50/50 between bare-booting and micro-spikes. Based on conditions and recommendations by Keith & Julie, we all put on our snowshoes for our trek over to Eisenhower. Heading down from Pierce we had strong winds in our faces. Anyone that hadn’t previously put in extra gear did so at this point. We quickly descended into the more treed area and the wind was much calmer. The trail between these two peaks is frequently wind blown, but it was easy to follow today thanks to others before us and the day’s conditions.
The trail was easy to follow and we found ourselves approaching the final climb to the summit about 1hr 30 minn after leaving Pierce. Blocked from the winds, this section was almost ‘balmy’ as we started up the final climb. Here is where some of us (Me anyways) started to feel heavier legs. But the excitement of nearing the peak helps keep the forward momentum going. We decided to let the winter-Ike-Virgins lead the final pull to the summit as 5 of the group were tagging this for their winter 48 list. We were at the large summit cairn before we knew it! A bit windy, but we snapped our photos and congratulated ourselves for peak #2. A quick confirming discussion and we opted to make a loop by heading down to Edmunds path. (nice to also have backup plan of returning ‘around’ Ike’s back side if we didn’t like Edmunds or had hard time with the small slide area)
Descending Ike on this side was a bit challenging – very wind blown, the trail was more rocks and ice than snow. Snowshoes felt a bit cumbersome, yet crampons would probably not have had enough snow or ice to bite into. We carefully made our way down and had the pleasure of running into Zman and 1HappyHiker! They had skied Clinton Road and then snowshoed up Edmunds. We were happy to know the path would be (somewhat) tracked. Sadly wind kept us from chatting too long so we kept moving.
The slide area was almost unnoticeable, no problems here. Actually the harder part was the first half mile or so of the path as it crosses such a side-slope section. Certainly manageable, just a bit of caution so one wouldn’t slide down. (The slope straightened out after the sections where one usually sees the stream in other seasons – NO running water at this time, all nicely snow covered.)
Time for more snacks – a bit of snowshoe sliding were possible. Edmunds was quite enjoyable with the soft snow and the slowly setting sun. We reached the parking lot at Edmunds trailhead just as the sun had set. We were treated to the full moon rising as we snowshoed the 2.5 miles back to our cars. Tedious, but lovely. And still shorter than Lincoln Woods!
Back to the cars at 5:30. 10.2 miles in 8.5 hours. Too many apologies for repeating ourselves at how amazing and lovely the day was. Thanks to all for making this quite the memorable day – nothing like sunshine, views and incredible folks to share this amazing experience.
Must mention: brownies complements of Madriver! RocksnRolls for losing items, including a glove in the outhouse at the start of the hike! And non-stop entertainment complements of this great cast of characters… hope we can do it again.
Length of Hike: 8:30 hours
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