Looking out the
window on Saturday morning, April 19th, I was
surprised to see snow falling "It's April for
crying out loud" and I thought to myself "this
can't last long" and sure enough, we had sucker
sunshine as we met at the parking lot and then at
the western North Bank trailhead. (Definition of
"Sucker Sunshine" is when the sun shines just long
enough for one to be committed to a certain
distance from any shelter, then the sun
disappears.)
It was a hardy group
on Saturday of fourteen people who were betting on
the spring season vanquishing the snow. We went
straight up the trail from the parking lot. The
faster hikers set a good pace and were soon out of
sight of our new hiker, a grandmother and her
grandson, who realized her limitations and turned
back after several miles going down the way we
came. Geoff and an unidentified man from the
parking lot who joined us, Ray, Linda and Lois
the coordinator continued on, not that far back
but still out of sight. Ray kept Geoff and the
unidentified company in tow while Linda and Lois
plodded on ahead.
As we progressed, the
clouds lowered and soon we had sleet, followed by
hail of various sizes then a sweeping snow storm.
The weather was so drastic and dramatic that it
was more interesting than uncomfortable and the
hills are steep enough that climbing kept us
warm. We could see curtains of snow blanking out
more distant hills. It was an exhilarating
hike, the weather made it so exiting
that one didn't feel as tired as usual going the
eight miles. Needless to say, lunches were eaten
in the car or at home. The next morning, the
hills were covered in snow, we were so lucky
that we got our hike in the day before.
