Annual Thanksgiving hike. Plan was to ditch my stuff at the Wolf Jaws lean-to and climb Upper Wolf Jaw to Armstrong and maybe Gothics then come down and spend the night. That did not work out… the Southside trail is no longer being maintained, which meant using the Johns Brook trail to the outpost. I should have taken the short left on the Southside over to the Great Range trail, but instead went up the Ore Bed Brook trail toward Saddleback to get the Woodsfall trail. The Wolf Jaw lean-to has been moved down from the Woodsfall/Great Range trail junction to halfway to the Southside trail junction. This meant going down about .3 mile and then back, so I kept going. At about 3500 ft, trail became icy enough for microspikes. About .3 miles from the summit of Upper Wolf Jaw the trail was iced over rock outcroppings I couldn’t get up with my full pack on. Went up Lower Wolf Jaw and out. Doing it in October next time…
