There are two routes to the cabin. One is a 6.5 mile hike in from the Skyline Drive, the other is a 3.5 mile climb straight up from the valley floor (about 1200 feet elevation gain). Because we hate ourselves and continually wish to find ways to better punish our bodies we opted for the 3.5 mile walk of death.
Getting ready to hike at the trailhead.
From left: Me, Rob, Allison, Heather, Joe, Erin, Maddie, Angie, Pearson.
At first the trail pretty leisurely winds up and down beside a small creek - ahem, crik - which looks to be mostly fed by snow melt and rain. It'd probably be a cool place to come back to in the Spring and just rock hop until you find a nice deep pool to sit around and have a lunch or something.
The creek widened and deepened at some points with nice big rocks to scramble on.
And then out of nowhere the trail turned on us. It wont be apparent from the pictures but we were walking straight up towards the sky... literally. Apparently whoever built this trail didn't think that making a few switchbacks was a good idea. There were even a few spots where I caught myself about to reach out and put my hands on the ground in front of me as I kept trudging along.
About 1 minute into the hike we all stopped to shed a layer of clothing.
The further we hiked the more snow fell on us and the mistier it got. All this was great for setting the creepy mood that would later scare Erin to the point that she slept with an axe propped against the door.
Up up up. The trail in was about 97% incline.
For most of the hike in Heather was setting the pace and I think her goal was to see how many of us she could get to pass out behind her. I did notice that once you get into a stride its easier to just keep going than to stop and try to get started again.
The snow and cold temps actually made for pretty comfortable hiking.
Then finally, after 2 hours and 20 minutes the trail leveled off, sloped down, and there was the cabin.
How cool is that?
The dinner bell (can on a string) hanging at the front porch produced a loud and resounding blast that would surely burst ear drums for miles around... or not. At full tilt it could barely be heard over the pitter-patter of centipede feet on the forest floor; completely useless.
The mist was so thick at one point that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you.
Shortly after we arrived at the cabin and set down our packs we all froze solid and realized it was cold outside. So we scavenged the surrounding woods for anything we could break, saw, hack, pummel or otherwise make into a shape that would fit in the fireplace or woodstove.
Joe pounding away with a blunt maul.
Allison and Heather working on a piece of wood. (giggity)
The write-up on the cabin says there is a spring nearby. Well we found a piece of PVC sticking out of the ground with water pouring out of it so whether or not that was the intended water source, we used it.
Joe brought a Katydyn water filter which worked great.
Inside the cabin was rustic and full of splinters. We couldn't get into the storage space underneath which is just as well because I'm fairly certain it was filled with the decomposing corpses of previous hikers who were taken by the axe-murdering, crazy face mountain man that Erin was so concerned about.
The wood stove kept us nice and toasty.
There were a couple of "bunks" downstairs and then a large loft area above for more sleeping space. This worked out great since Erin had Maddie with her and they had the downstairs to themselves each night... well, themselves and the axe-murdering, crazy face mountain man. It also turned out that at Jones Mountain Cabin heat actually doesn't rise and the loft area was always a good 10 degrees cooler than the main floor.
Looking down from the loft.
At night we created some very nice track lighting by hanging headlamps from nails in the rafters. This made it much easier to find things like: lost flasks of Jameson, bottles of vodka and some weird fru-fru shots in test tubes that Pearson and the girls seemed to enjoy.
The ghosts of Jones Mountain Cabin.
Our second day at the cabin was all rain, all the time. So we stayed inside and entertained ourselves as best we could with dice games, reading, chasing rats, listening to ipods, chasing more rats, poking the fire, eating dehydrated food, chasing rats again and every once in a while making a mad dash out to the privy. I'm just kidding, we didn't eat that much dehydrated food.
There were several journals left in the cabin so we could leave our mark.
Sunday morning we woke up to find that the wood supply was nearly exhausted. It turns out this was a good thing cause no one wants to stand around in a cold, dark cabin so we made good time getting packed up and headed back down the trail.
It continued to rain and mist as we hiked back down the sheer cliff which was the trail. With gravity's help we made it back in 1 hour and 45 minutes and to my surprise no one took a header the whole way down. We did have an incident with a trash bag, and Joe saved a family of helpless deer from a mud slide but other than that the hike back was uneventful. I'm just kidding, we didn't have any trouble with the trash.
It continued to rain and mist as we hiked back down the sheer cliff which was the trail. With gravity's help we made it back in 1 hour and 45 minutes and to my surprise no one took a header the whole way down. We did have an incident with a trash bag, and Joe saved a family of helpless deer from a mud slide but other than that the hike back was uneventful. I'm just kidding, we didn't have any trouble with the trash.
Wet and hungry but having a good time.
Once we got back to the cars we took the most indirect route to the closest IHOP we could find and did our best to offend every patron in the place with our 3 day backpacker smell. Then it was another 1.5 hours and we were home sweet home again... ahhh hot showers.
This was an awesome trip. The snow and rain actually added to the ambiance for me. I think there was a consensus that the hike along the creek alone would be something worth doing again. Now it's time to plan the next trip!
-Dave
PS - We never did make contact with the axe-murdering, crazy face mountain man.
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