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I had never been up Sandwich Mountain
(also called Sandwich Dome), so I thought this might be a good day to try. According to
the weather report, it looked like it was going to be nice out,
neither too warm nor too cold. I brought my snowshoes, but not my
crampons, which I didn't think would be necessary.
The trailhead had extremely limited
parking, at least with snow on the ground. The parking area is right
by
the entrance to a power substation, and I was careful not to
block its driveway because I didn't want to get towed.
It was a bit colder than the predicted
temperature, so Muffin was wearing her pink fleecy sweatshirt that
says "Princess" on it. She
carried her food in her backpack too, and was very happy to be doing
so. She always liked it when I put her backpack on her.
We walked around the perimeter of the
fenced-in and none-too-scenic power station, into the woods, down a rather icy
embankment to a brook crossing, and then back up the other side. I
hoped that the trail wouldn't be as icy the rest of the way.
As often happens when it concerns the
unpredictability of the weather, my hopes were soon dashed, as the
icy patches did indeed continue. The snow was still relatively deep
in some spots off the trail, but the surface of the trail was quite firm
and there had obviously been a recent thaw. The melting runoff had
completely re-frozen into icy flows and cascades along and across
portions of
the trail.
I didn't really need the snowshoes for
the snow itself; there was no danger of postholing. But the crampons
on the bottom of my snowshoes were the only thing that gave me
enough traction to negotiate the slick areas.
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Sandwich
Mountain Trailhead. There's very limited parking at this trailhead
in the winter. The trail begins next to a power substation. |
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