Although there were some patches of snow on the secondary roads I made good time getting to the Middle Creek Road, which was about two miles from the trailhead. I was relieved to see that road had been plowed and Nicole's Corolla had no real difficulty guiding me to the unplowed trailhead parking area.

I tried to bully my way into the snow in order to get off the one-lane road, but didn't do terribly well. I backed up and tried again. No luck. I got out the shovel I had with me and started to dig myself a parking space. The snow was perhaps a foot deep with a four inch crust on top and icy powder below. As I hacked away a 4x4 pickup came from further down the road. I jumped into the car and tried to squeeze into my half-completed space, but still couldn't fit. I got out and was about to try to dig some more when he got bored and tore through the snow, nearly running over my shovel.

I'm sure he was annoyed with me, but he did serve to break up the snow. Half an hour after I arrived at the trailhead I was able to get the car far enough out of the road to be satisfied no one would have trouble getting by me.

I had only minimal gear, including footwear, but after half an hour of shoveling I was already quite warm. I threw everything else in the pack and started tromping up the trail. Sections about two feet in diameter would collapse when I stepped onto them, which made it almost like snowshoeing. Only occasionally did I really posthole through getting powder onto my socks.

The trail climbed quickly, winding its way through a leafless hardwood forest. The snow was marked only by a rabbit's tracks who had climbed the trail before me. The sun lit up the snow causing it to sparkle almost painfully as I huffed my way to the top of the ridge.

I followed the sign to the "overlook," which stood above a 300 foot drop to the creek below. I'm glad I came after the leaves had fallen because I don't know how much of the other cliffs you could see were the trees full of leaves.

The area is protected because it's the southernmost extent of glaciers in the area. The cliffs are made of glacial till that's slowly being exposed by erosion. Pretty cool, even if it's only about 74 acres in size.

From the overlook I followed the sign to the second part of the loop back to the car only to find that it was actually closed. I retraced my steps to the car trying not to trigger an avalanche on the steep slope. (Northwest hiker killed in freak avalanche in Kentucky. Dimwittedness blamed as the reason he was outside in the first place.)

When I got back to the car I had to figure a way to turn around. My first attempt was to back out perpendicular to the road thinking I could pull in before straightening out and leaving. Uh huh. Needless to say I got stuck perpendicular to the road with a nasty drop off behind the car. I used the shovel to find gravel beneath the front tires and pulled back into my parking spot after only a few moments of trouble.

I found success only after backing out of the parking space, still facing the wrong way on the road, pulling forward, then ramming backward into the snow. With my front tires still on the pavement I was able to pull out facing in the correct direction and head off.

This hike is only 1.7 miles long and maybe 300 feet in elevation gain, but it's paired with another hike only a couple of miles down the highway. I headed there to try to do that as well since I was in the area, but the parking lot was again snowed in and my shoulder was already tired from shoveling so I opted to head back to Independence. (As I was leaving this morning Martin, fresh from a 24 hour stint at the hospital, indicated he'd be up for some hiking later in the week so we might go back to the Dinsmore Woods Nature Preserve as well as a wonderfully named state park also in that area.)