Panjab Trail — Tuesday, May. 10, 2022

I hiked this trail yesterday, following the creeks as far up as I could go. The trail is free of snow until about 5000 feet of elevation, which is about four miles in. It looks like volunteers have recently cleared the trail of logs up to that point.

Panjab Trail climbs through a coniferous forest—mostly ponderosa pines and Douglas firs—and it was recently burned out pretty thoroughly. Still, the trail is well maintained, and it’s nice to see how the forest is recovering, especially now, in the spring, as the wildflowers and other ground plants are starting to come in.

The climb is steady, and while I had sunshine near the bottom and near the top, snow fell on me both on my way up and down—big spherical flakes, almost like hail. The higher you get, the wetter the trail becomes, and near the top it turned into a downright stream. After that, the trail is supposed to jog to the north and follow a fork of the creek, but between the muck, snow, ash, and fallen trees, for the life of me I couldn’t find the trail. I tracked along for a while using my GPS, but eventually I had to give up. If it were summertime and the conditions were drier, I might have kept trying, but yesterday, I had to call it.

Still, it was a nice hike, and I enjoyed being up there. Good adventure.