A few photos at
https://imgur.com/a/okQowOe
Saturday, Feb. 18, hiked Bearpen and Vly from the south with
ValleyGirlHikes
. Met Diane and her wonderful dog Topo at the parking area, they went to Vly first. Was 17 degrees and the melting snow and ice from the past few days of warm weather had re-frozen, but only in patches on the woods road. Started at 8:04am, barebooted up to the junction at the hunting cabin, then put on our old(ish) microspikes since there was more snow and ice underfoot. Turned west on the snowmobile trail towards Bearpen until the sharp left turn, where we decided to follow what we thought was the unmarked path. After about 10-15 minutes, we hit the state land property line and realized we were off course, so we bushwhacked west and uphill for about 10-15 minutes and hit the unmarked path shortly before it rejoins the snowmobile trail.
Back on track, hit the first viewpoint, which was quite windswept and icy, then to the summit at 9:45 for another lovely view. Met Diane again on our way down and she confirmed that we should have made the turn and gone uphill before leaving the snowmobile trail. It was 12 years since we were last on this trail, so we needed to refresh our memories. 🙃
Back to the junction then up towards Vly. Found several spots where a hard layer of ice made it tough to dig in with the old spikes and we slipped more than expected. Went slowly and carefully but finally made it to the summit at 11:30 with no issues. Took a nice break, enjoyed hot tea, calm air and blue skies. On the way down, decided to walk next to the path at the spots where the ice was hard and slick. Made it out quicker than expected, finished at 12:50pm. The ice might soften with warmer weather this week but I'd still bring spikes.​