BeaverBrook2010Mar

Joe Shultz and I had a goal of dumping our packs at the Beaver Brook hut, just 1.1. miles from the trailhead but up a very steep trail, and then continuing on to Mt Moosilauke. We followed the only tracks we saw, tracks made by snow boarders coming down the slope on the day before, after the 10" snow during the week. Unfortunately, the snow boarders had not followed the true trail. After realizing our error, we failed to head back down to return to the real trail. Instead, we pushed up the slope in the general direction that we thought was right. We had our snowshoes on with our heavy packs. To avoid dense firs we strayed diagonally away from the trail. Eventually, we had to push through lots of heavily cluttered terrain. I'm afraid that lasted a long time, but I always knew that we would finally meet the Mt Thom trail. After 5 hours, we heard voices---French being spoken just above us---so we thought that we were nearing the cross trail. Turns out that the other party from Quebec had followed a similar incorrect path and were now, with the aid of a GPS, heading for the shelter. To our intense disappointment, we met the other hikers' trail, and it was definitely not the true trail. We did, however, follow their footprints. After another hour, when I was very tired, we stumbled out onto the original Beaver Brook Trail, just at the entrance to the shelter spur trail. Whew! It was 2pm. We dropped our packs and headed to Mt Thom. The next morning we were tired enough to simply head back down to the trailhead. No Mt Moosilauke. The hut, however, had a great view of Franconia Ridge. Overnight temps were in the teens. A good time, if you discount the uncertainty of not knowing where we were for 6 hours.

Our goal The 1.1-mile trail eluded us, and bushwhacking took 6 hours to reach the hut.	Tired and happy Joe The final hour of bushwhacking was following the trail of another set of hikers, who had a GPS.	Beaver Brook view 1 The view of Franconia Ridge was studendous.
Fred and the shelter Typical	Moosilauke Joe Atop Mt Thom with Mt Moosilauke in the background	Moosilauke Fred Atop Mt Thom with Mt Moosilauke in the background
Beaver Brook Shelter Joe and I enjoyed the view form Beaver Brook,, but the hike to it lasted a bit longer than anticipated---6 hours of bushwhacking after a wrong turn at the start.	Sunset on Franconia RIdge	Sunrise from Beaver Brook Shelter Franconia Ridge from my sleeping bag
Waking with a wonderful view This might be on trip to a call of nature, before cooking breakfast while staying warm in my sleeping bag