Esther
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September 2, 2019
It rained most of the night, though it stopped in the morning so we decided that Whiteface would be a good hike to
finish the weekend off. We drove to the ASRC and was the only car there. It started drizzling lightly as we prepared
for the hike. Head down the trail and came to a junction. Not seeing any markers and assuming it was time to go up
we took a right (wrong) turn and ended up exploring the weather equipment. Neat stuff, though not where we were
intending to hike. We returned to the road, back to the car, and then started the hike again.
Round 2, back at the junction, we studied the trail a little more... ah ha! An arrow nailed in a tree hidden behind a
bunch of branches pointed the
way. Some impromptu trail maintenance had the arrow a little more visible from the junction, and we descended a little
ways further, finding the snow mobile trail, and then finally the trail up Marble mountain.
The steep ascent was great training of
the leg muscles and Marble Mountain had the only view for the day. The rain was now becoming significantly more than a
drizzle, and seeing that Whiteface was completely encased in a dark cloud we adjusted the objective to Esther.
On the way up the Marble mountain.
View from Marble mountain summit... as good as it gets today.
Onwards and upwards, the
rain got heavier as we went. The trail began to turn into a river. The showers turned into a down pour. My dirty and
stinky pack was getting a long awaited cleaning, though thankfully we were spared the lightning dry cycle. As a
consolation prize at least was warm, though this caused me to
delay putting on my rain gear until I was fairly wet already. The Esther herd path was a muddy quagmiure, and a little
ways up this, while balancing on floating sticks in knee deep puddles, Kat declared she was done with this silliness and was turning around. Since we were so close, Deb and I scampered
up to the summit, took a quick photo and turned back.
A dry place to crawl into... even comes with a towel!
Summit of Esther, and a clean pack.
We met one other couple coming up who inquired about conditions
on Esther... which we answered lovely, sun out, and a light tropical breeze! A short way later we caught up to Kat
and hiked the rest of the way down together. Arrived back at the car after five and a half hours, sopping wet, but
happy to get one more hike in before the long drive home.
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