Sunrise walk along the entire trail out-and-back, first time on this trail since June 2019! Really nice colors facing west while watching the West Maui Mountains, the island of Kaho'olawe, and Molokini Crater got uncovered by the rising sun. Trail was not very busy before sunrise, but still people out. Trail became a lot busier by 7:30AM. Awesome walk, love this spot.
2nd "freeze solo" ice climb in 2 days at Pinafore Falls. Climbed up and beyond the 20-foot multi-tier Pinafore Falls (main waterfall in the write-up) to find more large waterfalls upstream. Note that these waterfalls are only accessible via ice climbing, with proper gear and experience, as the bedrock and canyon slopes here are far too slippery and dangerous to attempt to climb during warm months. Beyond Pinafore Falls lies several 5 to 7-foot tall waterfalls, a 13-foot tall waterfall I named Ice Scale Falls, and finally, the last monster waterfall I named Wall Falls (named after the Game of Thrones ice wall). Wall Falls is a 30-foot tall waterfall with a flat tier 2/3 of the way up. Just beyond the flat tier is another 10-foot waterfall, making the entire waterfall about 30-feet tall. Wall Falls is where most ice climbers would stop, unless looking for another vertical challenge. Adjacent to Wall Falls waterfall is a canyon hillside stream that freezes over in the winter, making Wall Falls appear as if it wraps around the entire canyon here, hence the name. Down-climbing back to the rail trail from Wall Falls wasn't easy - this took a lot of upper-body strength as I found footing in the frozen waterfalls with my crampons, then would pick away with my ice axes to find holds, finally slowly lowered myself down these large escarpments of ice after jiggling each ice axe out of their holds. Once back down the 20-foot main waterfall, Pinafore Falls, the ice climbing out felt much easier, as I noted before that these are beginner ice climbs. Beautiful day on the ice, can't believe I climbed that much vertical ice safely with no rope, just my crampons, ice axes, and a helmet "free solo". I say that not to encourage others to do the same, but to preserve my experience here.
Came back to tackle the ice climbs of Pinafore once more - this time in ~10-degree weather. This winter has been super mild, but the random flash-freezes come and go - this was one of them where the temps were below 32 for about 48+ hours, making Pinafore Run and the waterfalls in the creek mostly frozen over. The run has seen more flooding in the last year, thus at least one other waterfall has been washed away - making for 2 lost waterfalls in just 2 years here. One used to sit adjacent to the rail trail at about 6-feet tall (gone) and this other one used to be about 4-feet tall (now gone). I made the very slow ascent up to Pinafore Falls by testing and evaluating each step on the ice and rocks, which made for a slow climb up. A lot of the waterfalls were still flowing fairly heavily under the ice in the middle of the creek, with some deeper pools, so I stayed mostly on the side where I could. Made my way up each of the smaller ~5-foot ice waterfalls to reach the larger Pinafore Falls. Then I climbed Pinafore Falls for about 6 vertical feet to test the ice and take photos of the slide portion of the waterfall. Beautiful time on the ice, despite it not being fully formed. Had to go slow, but a very fun place for beginner solo ice climbing.
Group hike along the loop. No snow and barely any ice due to the 32+ degree temperatures lately. Hike temps were around 25 degrees with hair ice and sapcicles (sap-filled icicles). Vista was nice per usual.
Short hike with Jax while the gate is still open (closes Jan 16, 2023) in hopes of decent snowy views atop Cedar Mountain. Temps in the valleys and canyon were around 35 while the mountain tops were around 31. White tops with layers of brown. Hopefully the snow will return in full soon! On the drive out I spotted a juvenile Bald Eagle that was injured off of Mill Run Rd. Its talons appeared to have been caught up in a long rope or vine and could not fly. Upon inspecting (see the photos in the album), the bird tried to hide on the ground with its wings spanned outward - appearing to be around 4-feet wide from tip to tip. I called the PA Game Commission with the coordinates in hopes that they could help this bird. Another animal helped from the trail for me now (2 dogs, 1 bird).
Snowy hike hoping for some cool views, but showed up too early as the clouds were still lingering at the top of the mountain. No views, but it was a nice walk. Driving up wasn't bad with winter tires in ~2-inches of snow.
Hiked to the summit with Tony (HikingUpward) finally as he hadn't made it to the top when we first came here. Awesome hike, but the leaves are down from the trees in most places - making for interesting contour lines in the mountainous plateau.
Foliage hike out to the water - excellent color along the way out. The water it the swamp/pond/lake was lower and the color of the foliage around it was more dull than expected, but the white birch and aspen trees that line the shores are a nice sight.
Service road gate is open for hunting as of Oct 13 and closes around January 16, 2023. Came back twice for photos and decided to drive the road to the summit, but walk to the view down the mtn. Photos from Oct 13 evening and Oct 14 morning. Grand View!
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