Sunday, March 24th 2001

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Sunday, March 24th 2001
Shingletown Gap to Jo Hays Vista
Crampons and a lot of rocks

Lori was in town, and she was up for a cold weather hike, so I invited her along.

I had picked up some instep crampons, so I was eager to try them out on the same trail I tried the week before, so we headed to Shingletown Gap and headed towards the rock tower.

As we approached the ice near the top of the ridge, I strapped on my new crampons. Wow! They really glue your feet to the ice. I didn't even need my trekking poles with them. I highly recommend instep crampons to anybody that hikes when there is snow or ice around.

Hiking in the winter is so different than hiking in the summer, that you can hike the same trails you know by heart, and still find new things to discover. The scenery from the ridge tops is a bit better, too, since there are no leaves to get in your way.

I've hiked this ridge a bunch of times, but this time it was all new. Of course, the last time I hiked it, it was from the other direction, too :-)

Basically, this was the reverse of most of my hike from August 5th, where I started out at the Jo Hays vista, and hiked over to Laurel Run Road, and then down Shingletown Gap, except we shortcut directly to the rock tower, which Lori had never seen. She had hiked the Happy Valley vista, and the Jackson trail, so she was filling in a few gaps here.

The trail was just as I had left it, and having first hiked the Jackson trail about 1 year ago to the day, it was like visiting an old friend; or at least some old rocks, since the MST here, along with the Jackson, is the rockiest trail I've ever seen!

I Have GPS data from this hike, which I'll post to HikePA at some point . . . although it's pretty much a straight line from one side to the other, I can still get distances on the vistas, the rock tower, and the junction of the several trails, like the Musser, and the spplit of the MST and Jackson.