Dirty Harry's Balcony

This was the perfect hike to do on Friday - our first sunny day in a while. I didn't realize that the trail would be so rocky all the way up, but it never let up. About a third of the way up we encountered snow on the trail, and at the junction where it splits, where you can head left to Dirty Harry's Peak, we were confused where to proceed. We got lucky that on our way up there was someone coming down who mentioned that at the junction to follow his footsteps in the snow. So when we arrived, at first I couldn't tell that his footsteps were behind a downed tree he must have climbed over. The snow was fine, my companion and I were only in normal hiking shoes and it was never very deep at all. Made it up to the balcony and the view was gorgeous. We had lunch at the top and then decided to attempt Dirty Harry's Peak. We must have gone another mile and a half or 2 miles beyond the junction, but the snow began to get too deep for the angle we were hiking. That and the fact that the steepness of the entire trail had left us exhausted and I was ready to head back to the car. I later learned we probably weren't too far from the top, and I was disappointed that I hadn't pushed further, however there was only one set of tracks that kept climbing past ours and it looked at least a week old if not older. It was an amazing hike - tiring but well worth it. I will attempt the peak again once some of the snow has melted.