We met at the Underhill Center commuter lot at 9, consolidated to two cars, and headed to the Stevensville parking area. The morning was cold (close to zero F), but warmed up rapidly with bright sunshine.

We got our gear on and started up the Nebraska Notch trail at about 9:15 AM. After the thaw, rain, and freeze in the week preceding the trip, the surface was hard frozen snow with occasional patches of ice, so those with micro-spikes wore them, while others wore small snowshoes for traction rather than for flotation.

We stopped briefly at Taylor Lodge to hydrate and snack, and then continued down the Lake Mansfield Trail. The ice in the waterfall just below the beaver ponds was pretty, but the ice on the trail was not so much so, and was much more extensive on this second leg of the trip. We also observed some of the old cellar holes next to the lower part of the trail.

We took another break for water and lunch at the Lake Mansfield trailhead, then turned around and retraced our steps. We saw a fair number of people on the trail, and found a dropped glove a ways below the waterfall which we left on a branch overhanging the trail, since we didn’t know if it belonged to someone still going up or someone who had already gone down. It turned out that it belonged to Dan, who had charged ahead of the group, so when we saw him running down from Taylor Lodge in search of it we directed him to where we’d left it and he made it down to get it and back to Taylor before we were ready to leave. We made good time back to the parking area, reaching it around 1 PM.

Trip leader: David Hathaway with Ashley Mikell, Andy Mikell, Ben Rose, Lori Fisher, Dean Wiederin, Dan Hildebrand