Did a loop starting from the Talus end of the Shangri La trail, followed the Bear Ridge trail to the West Tibbetts Creek Trail to the Cougar Pass Trail to the Harvey Manning Trail all the way to the Harvey Manning trailhead and then back out to Talus directly via the Shangri La Trail. The trails are snow-covered in their entirety right now. This TR is for the non-Shangri La sections hiked.
I did not see any other hikers on any of the non-Shangri La sections of trail today. The Bear Ridge trail had at least two people pass today as there were some fresh boot prints. This short section of trail had no obstacles and the tread had good grip.
Turning right onto the West Tibbetts Creek trail, there were some buried boot prints from yesterday, but the trail had seen no human travelers since the snowfall ended overnight - there were however deer, rabbit and coyote(?) prints all along this section of trail. There were a number of sections of vegetation encroaching significantly on the trail due to the weight of the snow - in a couple of sections it was a bit bushwhacky as a result - if you’re thinking of hiking this right now you should be comfortable with walking ducked down for 15-20 foot sections at a time. The log bridge over the creek had decent grip due to the cold/dry snow however it also required a bit of ducking & plowing through branches to cross.
Once at the junction of the Tibbetts Creek, Tibbetts Marsh and Protector trails, there were prints from one other hiker today which continued all the way up to junction with the Cougar pass trail. There were a few short sections of low branches here as well but nothing particularly bothersome.
The Cougar Pass/Harvey Manning trail section of this loop had the worst conditions. There are several blowdowns, including two where the tops of large trees have many branches across the trail with no easy detour. I had to crawl on elbows & knees to negotiate these two, so if you’re not up for some free tough mudder training, you may want to avoid this trail section for now. At least the snow meant there was no actual mud involved. There are also a handful of easier to negotiate fallen trees, one requiring a bit of a detour but with an obvious path. From the Lost Beagle/Harvey Manning/Tibbetts Marsh junction, the rest of the trail is obstacle-free.
The West Tibbetts/Cougar Pass/Harvey Manning sections of this loop had about 6 inches of fluffy snow, deeper in some hollows where the wind had deposited more. Most of the way there was good grip but it is worth being careful with foot placement as there are some small buried logs here and there that are not easily visible with the snow cover and are easy to trip or slip on.
Comments
I went over that bridge yesterday and did it awkwardly on my knees 😂
Posted by:
Birb on Dec 27, 2021 10:51 PM
It must have been your bootprints under the newest 1-2 inches of snow that I was following on the Tibbetts Creek section.
I crossed that bridge using the armpit-sliding-along-railing technique, as evidenced by the first 2/3rd of the railing being wiped of snow in the photo above, while blocking the branches from my face with the other arm.
Posted by:
Grey Cell Green on Dec 28, 2021 09:26 AM