the weblog: Day 28—Snowy Paradise

Man what a great hike today! Ace and I left around 9:00 this morning to bag Mount Paradise, the 3rd highest in Jersey and also #3 on my list for the state. We expected a little bit of snow—it had been snowing in Hoboken the night before. We weren’t prepared, however, for the 6 inches or so of fresh powder that covered the slopes of the Kittatinnies.

After getting turned around a few times on the way there (mostly because of closed roads) we reached the trailhead at the base of Buttermilk Falls. The falls were much more impressive than I expected: 90 feet of cascading snowmelt framed by the snow-covered tree limbs. The hike went straight up some stairs next to the falls. Very slippery.

After the stairs, the trail didn’t get any easier. It went nearly straight vertical for the first mile or so, gaining most of the altitude. The snow made obstacles out of otherwise ordinary things: rocks were suddenly too slippery to step on, tree branches half buried in snow made great trip hazards and cold snow kept melting and falling from above. Still a beautiful scene, and in surprisingly little time we made the 1,100’ climb to the summit, where we were greeted by this:

Damn New Jersey (although I can’t say too much . . . Sandia Crest is also littered with radio towers)! Not a lot of views at the summit. Luckily, our loop followed the AT to two other peaks which folks claimed have wonderful views. We had a quick snack and headed out to Rattlesnake and Bird Mountains.

Hiking on the AT was much easier than on the previous trails. We made it to Rattlesnake in no time, and decided it would be quicker and easier to continue on than to turn around (despite not knowing how to get off the mountain from Bird Mountain). Here are some of the pictures from the 2 peaks:

After summiting Bird, we started the bushwhack (snowwhack?) back down to the road. The first few hundred feet down were nasty—lots of snow-covered rocks and logs. After that though, it was pretty easy hiking; probably easier than going down the actual trail. The trees spread out and for a while we were actually on a trail of some sort. As the sun set we made it back to the road and hiked an uneventful 1.5 miles back to the car. Just under 7 miles. Overall a great day I think.

Now it’s time for bed. Potentially 18 hours of work tomorrow. . .i’ll let you know how that goes. Here are some more pictures from the hike: