We found our winter destination. Local sources are reporting the possibility of five feet of snow and drifting higher. Time to soup up Wade’s new snowshoes… with tails!

Another report suggested that the parking area and kiosk were nowhere to be found, just mountains of snow. A little bit of panic set in… where to park without getting towed or plowed in? I called Sugar Moon Farm, a nearby maple syrup farm/restaurant/hiking and snowshoeing destination, to try to get a little more insight into the parking situation. They confirmed the trailhead lots are currently inaccessible, but kindly offered their parking lots to us for the weekend. This means a few small “tweaks” to the route plan, but it should still all come together nicely.

The weather forecast leading up to the trip has been up and down every few hours but this is the one that we’re going with.

The cold weather, snow fall amounts, the unpredictability of the route, sled usage, and the requirement to be able to carry our gear if the sled becomes a hindrance has made this an interesting trip to pack for and completely different than anything we’ve done before. Instead of our normal lightweight setup we decided it would be a fun to try bringing a bunch of comfort items. Our normal choice of backpacks lately is an Osprey Exos 38 and an Osprey Sirrus 36 but for this one we chose a MEC Brio 70L and an Osprey Atmos 65L. We ended up putting all of the bulky gear in the Brio and all of the small heavy gear in the Atmos. You’ll have to wait for the trip report to see whether this was a success or failure.