Bright sunny day with temps in the 40's. The plan had been to drive the Seal Cove Road to the road to Bald Mtn. and walk from there to the Bernard West Ledge trail but the road was gated early on and we couldn't get near there ( place stopped not even on this map). Instead we parked in the pump house parking lot and took the Cold Brook Trail which was almost free of snow and ice
to the Bernard South Face Trail which was also clear at the start but had more snow as we gained elevation
As mentioned earlier there are a lot of trees down and this trail had more than it's share, requiring leaving the trail to get around them. We even found knee deep drifts off the trail.
The Bernard summit is wooded and does not offer much in the line of views but there are a few open ledges on the way down the other side.
We head for Great Notch to take that trail (I think it's the the easiest down) but to get to Great Notch we had to traverse a section of trail ( Knight's Nubble) that had stopped us one rainy summer day ( coming the other way). The trail was worse in winter. Very steep and lots of ice meant several major bushwhacks to get around sections that were too slick . Kelley and I didn't always take the same route but we both managed to get to Great Notch.
This trail also started out quite snowy but still the footing was pretty good and it was quite pleasant after the Knight's Nubble section, including the stream for Kelley to enjoy.
Before we had descended very far the snow disappeared and we had a 'walk in the woods' to the Gilley Trail and that back to Cold Brook and to the car.
It had been a strenuous hike but the exertion felt good after yesterdays mostly flat hike. # 1/2 hours
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