My wife, son, dog, and I planned a day hike up bald mountain. We started late, hoping to let the rain pass, and to give me an opportunity to sleep in a little. Once at the end of forest service road 3032, I noticed all three parking spots were taken and I had to back up and park in the closest pull-off, as the road is too small to turn around in.

The hike started off in dense fog through mud and creeks of snow melt. We did not hike more than 30 minutes before we started seeing snow on the ground. Quickly the trail became hidden beneath several feet of snow, and tracks from other hikers went in several different directions. We hiked around in the snow for a while until my son's socks became wet. We decided to turn around and let him change into the dry pair I always make him bring.

While the hike was cut short by snow, we still had a great time. On the way out the clouds began to lift and we were offered a couple peak-a-boo views. We look forward to trying this one again when the snow has had a chance to melt.

We just hiked about 3.8 miles along the Bald Mountain trail, from the Ashland Lakes trailhead, and it is NOT EASIEST! I don't know how it every got that rating, it was 1800 feet elevation and lots of rocks, roots and tricky footing. An easy trail would be one you could take while recovering from a sprained ankle. There were some slippery logs on the ridge, but the boardwalks between Beaver and Upper Ashland lakes were OK, despite the rain on Friday. We also were disappointed by the views, I do not know how much further you would have to climb to get views without looking through the trees, but we did make it to the saddle that was described and got some glimpses of peaks through the tree trunks. There were some huge beautiful rocks and a few rock slides that made good resting spots.

The trail had 3 trees blown down but easy to get around, there was a little water on the trail, not really very muddy, lots of rocks and roots, not all that many bugs. It was all in forest or swamp, with only one trickle of water. There were hardly any other hikers and only 5 cars in the parking lot.

This trail should really be rated moderate and not easy.