Beautiful sunny day with a few high clouds.
Forest road in pretty good shape. Some potholes, not hard to go around or slow. No washboard in the road like some other FS roads, so it was comparably "better" than some I have been on!.
Started at trailhead at 9:30. 1 car there. 38F. Immediate UP and doesn't stop. about 1.75 miles IN there was some snow/mud on trail in the shade. No issues walking on/around it in trail runners with trekking poles.
At about 2.25 miles trail gets steeper and a little more snow. Still could walk carefully though or around it (was being careful to not get too off trail and hurt the sagebrush buttercups that are just starting to bloom!
Once we hit the trail connector with Baldy trail and headed right towards the peak it was more snow and ultimately got too slippery and harder to walk so we decided not to try for the peak today and found a nice rock with a view and had our lunch. Took me about 3 hours to go the 3.5 miles (I am NOT fast at UP), but it was just a slow and steady slog up and made it.
Clouds started to come over the far mountains - wind picked up. Was about 49F. Cool when sitting but walking was fine up and down in just a long sleeve 32 degree top the whole way.
Kept hearing a low pitched WOMP sound. Turned out to be a Male sooty grouse in a tree. His low sound really carried across the valley. Only saw 1 other person. Once you get above the tree line the views were fantastic, so even if you don't make it to the summit, it was well worth the trek!
If you are looking for an early summit trek, this one is probably it as most of the primary snow has melted vs other trails that are still very snowy. I will be back once things melt to finish the climb and maybe do the loop next time. Have fun!
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