Finding snow at Black Mountain, ME

Interested in minimalist footwear and adventuring in general? You'll want to check out Damien's interview at Hiking Boots Blog (kind of funny that a hiking boots blog is interviewing him and none of us wearing hiking boots - tee, hee).

It's getting harder and harder these last official days of winter to find snow.   We never really experienced winter this year. Global warming, El Nino or just a freak year? 

But we found snow this weekend at Black Mountain in Sumner, ME. There's about as many Black mountains in Maine as Bear and Bald mountains. If you want directions just ask in the comments. This particular hike wasn't our first choice. We initially wanted to go to Tumbledown in Weld, ME but the access road with the good foot of fresh snow was too difficult for our car to navigate. (That almost-adventure got us started talking about upgrading our '93 Honda Accord to a slighter newer 4WD vehicle).

So we choose another mountain "kind of" close by and on the drive back home. We didn't start till after 1pm and ate lunch at the car before heading up.  We were pleasantly surprised by all the snow.  There wasn't any to speak of at home.  There was so much snow in fact that we were wishing we had snowshoes with us.  Our kids each own a pair but us adults borrow them when necessary, which is not very often.

Thankfully a trio of snowshoers had been up the mountain already and met us on their way down and their tracks packed down the trail for us.  But their tracks stopped before the summit and our attempts to find the rest of the trail on our own landed us in snow up to Damien's thighs!

But it was warm and we were having fun. When Laurent's heels started getting cold from snow going down his boots (the boy forgot his gaiters! of all days to forget!) we decided to turn back around never having actually reached the summit.  

Oh well it was super fun anyway. And so, so quiet up there with the snow covered evergreens.  I just love snow!

More pics and story at FIMBY.