Hello, Artex:

“I'm planning a three day, two nighter to do Couchsascraga, Santanoni and Panther in January or February. They are the last three peaks of the 46 for me. The trail is truly horrible and doing it in winter makes sense - when everything is frozen. I went down last Christmas day, but it had snowed during the night and the road hadn't been ploughed (it's a holiday or something). I proabaly could have made it in with the Jeep and that was one of the deciding factors in its purchase.

The drive is a little longer than the Elk Lake road to trailhead for you; it's Tahawus to the road to Upper Works and trail is on the left, just before the Mount Allen parking lot.

If you're interested you could use it as a sorting out trip for the Maine trip. There is a lean-to (just in case).

I might just stick to my original plan of a traverse in the Presidentials of New Hampshire during the first week of March. I am really interested in winter mountaineering and would go to Maine in March if it meant doing Katahdin.

What do you think?”

“That area should be just about empty then. Everything west of the High Peaks thins out remarkably.”

“Yeah, Geo., this is probably the emptiest spot at that time of year. The trails are horrible at best - Mt. Allen was probably the worst and ugliest walk I've ever experienced. I just want to get the 46 over with and get on with my life.”

“I went from that trailhead to Duck Ponds, then out to Seymour, Donaldson and Seward. I stayed at a lean-to before Duck Ponds, don't remember the name. It was in late August and it was boggy as all get-out because of rain.

But a lot fewer people even at that time of year, when the High Peaks were crawling with people.

As I recall I passed up on those three peaks because somebody told me there were a mess. Instead I did the others with two guys I met at a lean-to on a horse trail over there and we ran into a boss blow down. At one point I found myself about 30 feet above the ground and had to back down. We did all three, but it took all the mental powers of all three of us to do it. One of the three always came up with an answer. It was satisfying.

I hope you guys can put it together. Artex is great company, even if he won't share his wild pork.”

“Gremlin, yep, I'm familiar with Upper Works road and know the way from what you described. I'd love to go, schedules pending and everything of course. Keep me updated on when exactly you want to do this! I was thinking of hitting the 'Dacks sometime in early or mid-December if you're interested in maybe doing it then. I'd want to take a 3 or 4 day weekend, but have to see what's up with the family for Christmas before I reserve the time off.

Wow, only 3 away from doing all 46. You da man!!! :-)”

“Kewl, Artex, I'll have to take a day (Friday?) off. I can work it around your schedule and go when you can. December won't give you much in winter conditions, however and the trail might still be wet.

I'm leaving for caribou hunting on the 27th and won't be back till January 2. We'll be cutting and packing through to the 6th. Any other time is fine with me.

Wild pork, eh? The four legged kind I hope. You know, I have some caribou jerky left.....”