The things you do on your day off. As early season trails go, this one wasn’t too bad. Trekking poles and micro spikes made this “easy”.
A friend (old 2’s guy) and our kids got an early start for this one. In Gold Bar and on the trail, the weather was almost great. A cool 56 degrees, cloudy and little wind. The dodge got us to the trail head w/o a problems. I never used the 4×4 on the way up. But the parking lot still had some snow. While “turning around “ we hit snow”. I always carry an ax, shovel and a saw. We didn’t use them, but it was close.
We started early enough that things weren’t too bad. We ran into hard packed snow & fog. The fog took away our views on the way up. The snow and blow downs made the trail challenging. Out came the micro spikes.
Lunch at the top was 1/2 a can of “cold” hard cider, hot coffee, gluten-free fennel pollen salami, Reese’s sticks, and some dog food.
And then it started to clear up. WOW, what a view. On the way down we would take ten steps, stop, turn around, and take pictures. Repeat…….