Well, Darcy unfortunately had to work today so it was a solo trip for me. I started at the gate on Carriage road and took the white trail towards Gunstock. If you want to hike Gunstock in winter, and don't want to pay for a snowshoe ticket I would recomend this trail. If you aren't really familiar with this trail, be careful because they changed it from what is shown on the map. It gets hard to follow if you are not following the tracks others have made. at one point the white blazes have been blacked out on the old trail and finding the new trail gets confusing.
I barebooted the whole trip, probably could have used at least microspikes in someplaces, but all in all traction wasn't an issue.
Views were good from the summit, I even beat Ski Patrol up this morning! As a matter of fact, they were just getting there when I was headed off.
I didn't originally plan on heading to Belknap, but just had that itch to keep going and plenty of time to do it. The Brook trail required a little bushwacking because they don't want you walking on the ski trails, but wasn't that hard to find. From here to Belknap it was a quick mile. The trail was well marked and packed out.
The summit of Belknap was a bit windy, and views are obscured unless you climb the tower. Spent a few minutes here to fire up the Jet Boil and make a quick cup of coffee.. What a way to start a beautiful Sunday.
Decent was the quick down the green trail. Icy in spots, but easily managable. It means a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the gate, where you have to park in the winter.
