And not just because we can't go any farther. (pic:EWB)
If you're into snowshoeing for the act of snowshoeing, this is a hard time of year. First snowshoe season is pretty much done and second season isn't likely to begin for a couple of months. What's left is mostly tracked out snow at high elevation and pockets of spotty snow at lower elevation.
So of course we went in search of both on a single trip. It went about as expected.
It wasn't looking good early on. The alarm went off at 4:10am. Tinkham was groggy. The gas light was on in the car. The road was closed a solid mile and a half from the trailhead. Maybe a new plan is in order.
Although the road was closed and snowshoes were required just to get to the trailhead, the trail itself was bare for most of the first mile. There's nothing quite like the sweet, sweet sound of steel crampons scraping over rock. It's much more the sound of spring than chirping birds or croaking frogs.
When the trail did get snow covered, it pretty much disappeared. Sure, we knew where it was. After all, we used this trail multipletimes this last summer. But under a couple feet of snow, blown by the wind, the ledge that was the trail was completely hidden.
We wound up calling even our rightsized goal too far when we got to the creek. Gorgeous though it was, it was the perfect spot to turn back and climb to the high point that shall henceforth be known as "Silver Cheese." The snow up the ridge was deep and the slope steep. So steep poor Tinkham had trouble getting back up after jumping down to explore.
Not only was our time descending much faster than climbing up, the walk back to the car was a lot quicker. It turns out if you follow the trail it's a lot easier than wandering through the forest.
Fingers crossed we get either more snow to start second season early or less snow to let us hike until second season rolls around. Either way, this time of year is rough.
