[Bill Menke’s Journal Entry for January 20-21, 2009] Overnight Campout at the Fingerboard Mountain Shelter. I decided to take my annual winter campout today, even though the date is rather soon after Dallas’ and my White Mountains adventure, because the weather report is so favorable: a clear night with low temperatures. I chose Fingerboard Mountain, a low ridge that parallels the west side of Lake Tiorati, for the sake of nostalgia. One of my first winter campouts, with Hannah, Josh and their friend Daniel Russo, was at this site. I was running a bit late, and the sun was already setting as I reached Harriman State Park. The closest parking lot is at Lake Skannatati, at the bottom of a driveway off of Seven Lakes Drive. My worries that he driveway would be icy proved was unfounded; the Park staff had done a nice job plowing it. I ignored the ‘Park Closes at Dusk’ sign and parked anyway, hoping that I wouldn’t be ticketed (an indeed I wasn’t), and set off north, on crampons, through the snowy woods paralleling the highway. This choice proved over-optimistic; I would have done better taking off the crampons and walking along the road. The ground was rough and the going was rather slow. The shadows were lengthening rather rapidly, making me worry that I would miss the Hurst Trail up to Fingerboard Mountain and its shelter. I walked along a ridge top where I had a good view of the evening sky. Eventually I came upon a woods road that I had been expecting, as it is marked on the map, and this proved rather faster. I made another poor choice, to follow a power line that connects the woods road and the Hurst Trail, and cut off an eastward loop of the two. Unfortunately, the ground was rather overgrown with blueberry and laurel, so that I had to make so many detours that I became uncertain as to whether I had overshot the trail. I wound up walking back to the woods road and taking it to the start of the Hurst trail, just to be sure. One benefit of these rambling was the scenery – snow and ice covered bushes that were really quite beautiful in the deepening evening shadows. One on the Hurst Trail, the walk to the shelter was but a few minutes long. I gathered a few branches to use as firewood as I walked. The shelter was unoccupied, and indeed no one had walked the Hurst Trail since before Sunday’s snowfall. I stowed my backpack and took a slow kike up to the crest of the ridge, where I could see the last glow of the sunset, as well as the planet Venus in the western ski. I then went about cooking my dinner. Though only about six o’clock, night was already upon me, and I had to use my flashlight. I decided to sleep in the shelter this year, rather than outside in the snow, mainly for the sake of a change, though my late arrival figured into my decision, too. I unrolled by sleeping bag, put on my down suit, set up my MSR stove, and broke up the wood and arranged it in the fireplace. I cooked a dinner of flavored rice, the easy-to-make kind that comes in paper packets, and also some tea. I got the fire going, using my usual trick of an improvising a fire-starter made from gasoline-soaked paper stuffed in a can. Even helped with this fuel, my fire did not burn well, for the branches were rather too icy and cold. But my fire lasted a half-hour or so, and served to add some cheer to the otherwise dark shelter. Soon after dining, I crawled into my sleeping bad and rested, munching on a chocolate bar. I listened carefully for animals. I often hear coyotes and owls, but tonight heard nothing at all. I was quite warm during the night, though the temperature was 10 degrees Fahrenheit at sundown and dropped to 2 by dawn, except that I had trouble arranging the breathing space. Some configurations were too stuffy; other made my face too cold. I arose just before sunrise, when the eastern horizon (the direction into which the open side of this lean-to faces) was aglow. I fired up the stove and boiled quite a lot of water, both for tea and for a warming bottle, which I put into my sleeping bag with my boot-outers, so that they would be warm when I put them on (I had slept in the boot liners). I ate instant mashed potatoes and fried eggs. Once the sun rose, I could see that many of the branches were ice-covered, and these sparkled very beautifully in the reddish morning light. After finishing breakfast, I packed up my gear and headed out. I passed a low ice-fall, which I guess marks the spring that is nearby the shelter. Once back on Seven Lakes Drive, I took off my crampons and walked the road back to my car. The views of Lakes Tiorati, Askoti and Skannatati from the road are all very nice. I particularly like the way the featureless, snow-covered lake surface accentuates the profiles of the trees. About sixteen hours, overall.