Dawn greeted eight gals as we climbed into two cars and headed out of the 4B's parking lot around 8 a.m. on a warm winter day. The clear skies provided a beautiful backdrop to the Highwood Mountains that followed us half the way.

As we arrived at Silvercrest, we were the first to hit the trails for the day.  We followed the snowshoe trail to the overlook, backtracked to the main trail but then hooked up with the D Loop, being careful to follow the ski trail but stay off the groomed track. We broke trail most of the way, except when on the snowshoe track, as two new inches had fallen the night before.

We followed the D Loop to the warming hut, the one to the south, rather than the one on Mount Eureka, the one at which we had originally planned to eat our snack.  The total trip was about four miles.

After Silvercrest, we headed back toward Neihart with a stop to go to Memorial Falls, which added about another mile.. We didn't take our snowshoes on this short jaunt, which turned out okay as others had been up the trail before us.  The falls weren't covered with ice but still we saw gorgeous ice formations and icicles at the falls and along the creek.

We saw another one of the GIG along the trail: Camille and her husband snowshoeing and two other parties. The snow machines were out and caused a racket as we approached the parking lot.

We ended the day with a late lunch at Bob's Bar in Neihart, hassling the bar tender a bit, as he is getting used to us coming in all of the time--with separate tickets.  Susan provided a nice surprise for the end of the meal: iced sugar star-shaped cookies from Hempl's bakery, the perfect treat to end a perfect day.

Who went: Jo Ann, Gail, Bonnie W, Sue, Susan, Catherine, Mary, Katie
Link to Katie's pics