We delayed the trip one day, since the forecast Sunday (30% chance snow) looked nicer than that for Saturday (60% chance rain and snow). We met at the Cambridge Park & Ride at 9 AM and headed up to the Frank Post Trail trailhead on Tillotson Rd in Eden.
We started up around 9:50 under partly cloudy skies with a temperature right around freezing. There was a dusting of snow on the ground, and enough wind had blown since the snow fell that we had a layer of fallen leaves on snow instead of the reverse. The snow depth increased as we headed up, and was perhaps a couple inches at Tillotson Camp, which we reached around 11:20. Since it doesn’t really offer any views, we opted to skip the 1.2 mile round trip on the LT north to Tillotson summit, and instead took the LT south from Tillotson Camp toward Belvidere.
As in past years, there were many animal tracks, including many mice and small animals, as well as some large tracks we think may have been bear, but weren’t sure, as neither of us have much tracking experience. This section of the LT winds around more than most (never take a straight path when you can do a zig-zag), so we lost the trail briefly once, but this is in keeping with the GMC Burlington Section tradition of getting lost on trips up Belvidere led by outings chairs (current or past). This section of the trail was also very wet, so we were glad we both had decent boots. As we neared Belvidere we passed three people doing the same loop we were in the opposite direction. We reached the junction with the Belvidere summit spur trail around 1 PM, then headed up to the summit.
We’d been having periods of sun, but clouds had moved in when we reached the summit, so views were sparse. The trees offered protection from the wind, but it was fairly strong at the top of the fire tower. The tower was covered with hoarfrost, and the thick frost on the cyclone fencing around the top actually made a pretty good wind break. After a very brief stop for lunch and pictures, we headed down the Foresters Trail, reaching the Frank Post Trail junction around 2:35 and the car around 2:50.
Participants: Ted Albers, David Hathaway (leader)
