Family Winter ADK 2019
This year’s family winter ADK trip was a little different. Instead of staying at the cozy condo in town, we decided to hike into the interior and stay at Grace Camp.
It’s a three and a half mile hike in. Luckily for mid March we still had plenty of snow. The day we started it was 50 degrees. When we hiked out on Sunday it was only 23 degrees.
The girls really enjoy Grace Camp and quickly adjust to the differences of backcountry living.
On Saturday we geared up for a day hike. Originally we were going to try and climb Big Slide Mt., but the recent warm temps and rains had the creek crossings bigger than I wanted to risk with the kids and Jen. Instead we decided to head in the Wolf Jaw direction. We could try and climb either Lower Wolf or Upper Wolf Jaw Mts. (all are above 4k’ – 2k’ gains from where we were camped), or just look for fun places to sled. The temps were in the low 30’s and lightly snowing most of the day.
Along the way they found some places to try their ice axes. When I originally considered climbing Big Slide, I knew there were places near the top where it got steep and icy, so I got them lightweight ice axes to minimally hook trees along the trailside to climb up. They weren’t as necessary for the Wolf Jaw area, but still light enough to carry and fun enough to play with.
What you can’t see is that both picks have covers duct taped over them. As I said, they were mostly meant for hooking for them.
We stopped for lunch at the Wolf Jaw lean-to. The gear in the background belonged to two guys camping their that weekend. We later met them near the top of Lower Wolf Jaw.
Shortly after lunch, Lauren and Jen decided to head back to the cabin. Abigail, on the other hand, had her sights set on getting to the top of Lower Wolf Jaw. It was late in the day, but we tried anyway. I gave us a 4pm turn around time. We summited at 4:11, then turned back and slid most of the way home.
The hike out on Sunday was the coldest. It was probably in the upper teens when we started, and ended in the mid 20’s. The girls did their best to sled most of the way home. They had a blast.
– b