Lisa and David met at the Richmond Park & Ride at 8:30 and drove to meet Jill and Vikki at the Waterbury P&R, then consolidated into one car and headed up to Barnes Camp on 108. We saw a few glimpses of sun as we got ready, but it was cloudy and in the 20’s F as we started out at 9:40.

We followed the official Long Trail South over the boardwalk and along the relocated Long Trail, which some of us had never done. It had been packed out a bit, but the trail was unbroken after we crossed 108, and were glad we’d brought our snowshoes. Lisa and Jill did most of the work breaking trail, but we had a group of Canadians behind us, so the trail was well packed on our way down. We were a little slower than expected heading up, reaching Taft Lodge around 12:15. Some of us were getting pretty tired, the cloud cover promised no summit views, and the winds, which had been reasonably calm, seemed to be picking up.

So, after a 15 or 20 minute break for lunch, we decided to skip the trip to what would have been an extremely windy summit and head back down, reaching the car around 2:30.

Participants: Jill George, Lisa Hardy, Vikki Monroe, David Hathaway (substitute leader).