Our group of three started out for Mill Brook Ridge via the icy access road to Alder Lake about 8:30. The thrill of the day was getting there via Cross Mountain Road (We returned home via Alder Road).
It was very cold, cold all day, running between -15F and -20F. We were dressed for the conditions with multiple layers, mittens, hand warmers. There was blue sky and sun with little wind. It was really very pleasant. Calm conditions allowed us to stop for more then a couple minutes at a South facing Lean-to at a beaver meadow on both the outbound and inbound.
Recent hikers had bare booted. We were bare booting too until arriving at the Mill Brook Ridge Trail. We switched to snowshoes there and we kept them on until returning to the trail register. After passing two beaver meadows (maybe one's an active pond judging by several large birch clearly felled by beavers) and a climb following a mostly everpresent track we got to the ridge at 3150'. From there the track was mostly drifted in but with not so small stretches of clear. We'd taken turns packing down the trail and I was in the lead near where we arrived at the summit plateau. I stopped a moment to look around and my partners kept going. They were looking for the little patch of a high point that's shown on the topo map where the trail is shown going over the summit. Around 1100 after they walked past a small mound I saw the tiny cairn at the base of a Birch tree signifying the summit. I took a photo on my phone and confirmed the GPS coordinates at home, but it was clear we'd arrived since beyond the summit, if we'd continued, we'd have started losing elevation. It was pleasant up there so we weren't forced to return straight away. But eventually we did and arrived back at our vehicle about 1245.
Photo at the summit below.
Don