Glacier Creek Road is really rough right now. Don’t get lulled into complacency by the smooth sections, pot holes, sinkholes, and abrupt edges are hiding in the shadows.
The trail is in great shape. Great tread and logged out. Patchy snow starts near mile 2, just past the turn off for the mountain toilet. There is more snow than trail after the climbers junction and there are many hidden holes and some obvious snow bridges. There was a very obvious boot track, so navigation was not needed, but choosing an alternative route over the snow bridges was necessary.
Kulshan Creek was not too bad and there were plenty of options for crossing and staying on rocks. The west fork of Heliotrope Creek (before climbers junction) is snow free and it was easy to find rocks to cross on. The middle fork of Heliotrope Creek (the first one after the climbers junction) had a snow bridge that was good enough when it was cold in the morning, but had more holes after noon. It won’t be there long and will be sketchy until it is gone. The final creek crossing had a more solid snow bridge, but it is thin at the edges and I saw a person with a heavy pack punch through. Where the snow was solid, it was easy to walk on and no traction was needed.
I saw 3 marmots and lots of marmot tracks up high and some band tailed pigeons in the woods. There weren’t many flowers, but there were some very nice marsh marigolds. It was socked in most of the day so it was a great hiking temperature. It never rained and a timely sucker hole showed up when I was at Survey Rock.
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