It was a picture perfect Spring Like day for a snow shoe hike. Our group assembled in various locations. I met Ann in Montpelier, Jeff and Darryl in Richmond. All 3 were newcomers, to one of my hikes. It was quite an adventure to get to the trailhead as Stevensville Road near the parking area resembled a bobsled run. It was a concave ditch dug out of the snow that was a sheet of ice. Jeff's car got stuck in the snow bank, and we had to push him out. We agreed to park his car in the lower lot and I transported all to the parking area. We ascended the Frost and Maple Ridge trails to the junction of the Wampahoofus Trail where it was decision time. Do we summit or not? We met Monique, who attempted it previously and said she could not get up in snowshoes. I took one look at the terrain and realized it would be necessary to have full point crampons to ascend which most of the group did not have. We decided to cross the Wampahoofus and descend via the Butler Lodge Trail. The Wampahoofus is a difficult trail to find and we ended up doing a bushwhack. Darryl had a GPS so we at least could follow the direction the trail should be following. We ended up finding the Butler Lodge Trail at the lodge. The trip down was a quick descent as it was well packed.

Paul DeLuca

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The Summit that eluded us (Photos by Darryl Smith) Original image

The group at the Wampahoofus Junction Original image