This is another in the "I have a great idea" series of adventures in which I look at a map and see two trails with a gap between them. "We should totally connect those trails. That'd be awesome."
It rarely goes as planned.
The boy and the dog were recruited for this misadventure. Up the snowy trail. At least it was well packed even if the snow all around was rotten. The slick snow was actually an improvement over the loose, baseball size rocks underneath. It was the first time for the boy so we stopped at all the sights. The old mining equipment. The climbing cave. The frozen waterfall. The peeing rock. The usual.
The packed trail ended where the climber's trail began. Nobody else had been foolish enough to go this way. Mashed potato snow made snowshoes a requirement. The dog went off leash and sprinted up and down the trail.
I don't know why I was surprised there were cliffs everywhere. Of the features we'd seen on the way up, 75% were cliff-based. The climber's trail wove between the cliff bands and was only a little sketchy near the end. There was both too much and too little snow to make it an easy climb to the overlook, but with care we made it.
The views were surprisingly good. Not that we saw anything you can't see from a bunch of other spots, but there was nobody around so that was a little special.
The prospects of continuing the route to the other trail was surprisingly bad. Again, I don't know why this didn't figure into my plans more. The way ahead would be a bushwhack and would likely lead us to a cliff just feet short of the other trail. That would suck.
So we turned around. Our tracks back to the main trail made for easy walking, but Tinkham was annoyed when she had to go back on leash as we neared the area where others might be. Her life is very hard.
Next time we'll go up the other side and see if we can scratch out a connection. After all, it's close to home and once I get an idea in my head...
