Hike Notes:
This is a special trip report for me since it is my 50th report. Been looking forward to this milestone for some time now.
With helping someone move Saturday and Father's Day Sunday, it is looking like I will not be able to get out this weekend to scratch the itch, so a coworker and I left work early to check out this hike. This hike has been on my list for sometime, but I've always been dissuaded by the crowds. However, a Friday night seemed like a great opportunity - and it paid off; only saw about 15 others the whole trip, pretty good!
We arrived at the TH around 5:45 pm to a mostly full lot. The hike up was uneventful. The lower part of the trail is quite rocky so makes somewhat tedious footing. You gain rather quickly and soon the trail smooths out and you are treated with overlook after overlook. It seems like the turn of every switchback presents a nice view either East or West. The trail then enters a uniform second growth forest before splitting off the to the formal balcony. The trail is well marked mostly with 'DHPT' signs, but these lead away from the balcony to the peak at the balcony turnoff. A little steep getting up to the balcony, but the balcony is very flat and roomy.
Our next objective, time permitting was to check out the 'Museum." However, we took the wrong trail, and instead headed up the Ira Springs Connector Trail. This trail is quite faint - pretty much a fisherman's trail with a few water crossings, one of which is a little dicey due to the steepness of the slope. We arrived at the balcony at 7 pm and set a turnaround time of 7:30 pm since we didn't know exactly where the Museum was and didn't want to hike in the dark. The connector trail flattens out - going through more 2nd growth and the trail becomes incredibly soft and spongy due to the accumulation of pine needle - a pleasure to walk through. We arrived at the "little balcony" around 7:20 pm. The views were comparable to the main balcony views, with better views to the West, but nothing orders of magnitude better than the switchback views to the West while hiking before. We decided we would turn around here. Upon returning to the main DHPT, we realized we went the wrong way for the Museum. We should have continued up the DHPT. This cracked me up because we both had GPS going on our phones. I thought to myself that I am glad we set a turnaround time and not just "hike til we find the Museum" otherwise we would have been returning in the dark. I kept thinking to myself - this trail seems quite primitive for the Museum trail that seems to be somewhat high-use, then it all clicked when we returned to the DHPT turnoff. The hike down was uneventful. Some people had a fire going down by the river when we returned. A few people heading up the trail into the night as we descended. Some said they were going to watch the sunset. One was solo and looked like he was gonna bivy for climbing. Back at the car by 8:30 pm.
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