Our goal for today's hike was to take it pretty easy, but perhaps try and get to the summit as long as trail conditions allowed it. I am currently operating on two bad knees and our decision to turn around when the trail got even a little bit hard was due to keeping said knees from sustaining further injuries. So, if you're motivated and can navigate a bit of snow (the kind that's just on the trail and half melted, half frozen, and post-holey) and several/numerous downed tree areas then you could probably summit. Also, with the record heat we had today and more warm weather coming there should be a lot more snowmelt happening in the next week.
Our Starting point: Lower Selkirk Parking lot
Went up Trail 131 then Trail 130 to Bald Knob Campground. Couple of easy to navigate downed trees across Trail 131 and Trail 130. One tree we recognized from our last snowshoe. These were not difficult to cross. Ate lunch at the picnic tables.
Sidenote: The road is not yet open for cars to drive to the campground.
2nd Sidenote: WTA's Holly Weiler will be up here with a crew very soon to cross cut the downed trees. =)
From Bald Knob Campground we continued along Trail 130, but turned around almost immediately. Lots of big snow patches. The kind that's passable, but with lots of stepping here and stepping there all the while slipping this way and that way. With my knees being as bad as they are right now we simply opted to try another trail that's on the sunnier side of the mountain.
Went back down Trail 130 then up Trail 290 which is normally a mountain bike route. But not right now it isn't! And I laugh as I write this. So many downed trees along this trail. And big bunches of them. For one section we went way up the hill and hiked a big detour around the trees covering a large section of the trail. We crossed 3 major downed tree areas then turned around when we came to the 4th. We looked up and large downed logs were on the hillside. They were looking quite dangerous should one of them decide to start rolling down. Looking down below the trail there was just so much loose tree debris that it wasn't a good idea to go around that way. And there was simply no possibility of stepping over the downed trees on the trail. Much trail work is to be had in this section. Can a person find a route around this area? Sure. Yes. But we weren't up for that type of adventuring today.
Back to the parking lot we went where we had the perfect celebrity meet up! Holly (WTA's finest) and Jasper (husky) were walking to their car which coincidentally was parked right next to ours. Then the park rangers rolled up. And it was a meeting of the minds of which trails need some serious cross cutting action.
Almost forgot! The bugs were buzzing about, but not biting. They were a bit annoying at times.
The Hiking Bookworms
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