If you want to see the topo map to get an idea of where the hike went, click here. You'll need to click "Trail Map" at the top of the menu on the left part of the page. There was still a good amount of snow on the south side (and a lot on the east side) of the mountain, so we lost the trail and ended up just forging our own up the south side. We were both glad we did! It not only saved us some time, but we found a neat grove of trees that had been burnt, their charred trunks and stumps sticking out of the snow.
Beautiful, no?
That last picture is from the east side of the mountain facing south on the way back down. We followed the "trail" (covered in snow, obviously, but the general idea of it) back down. This was definitely one of the funnest parts of the hike. The snow was quite deep and sometimes you'd fall through almost hip deep. Good times. Timp, here I come.
On the philosophical side, it is so true that we desperately need to reconnect with nature. We seem to be hiding ourselves from it--trying to convince ourselves we're not as mortal as the world around us. Going out into nature is finding yourself, finding God, and finding others. It's beauty you just can't manufacture.
