11 of us arrived at 6:45 for a 7 AM start with very few cars in the lot. On our return around 11:30, the lot was overflowing even to parking below the 30-spots lot, primarily with mountain bikers, but also small groups, dog owners, and one large hiking group (16) taking advantage of Veteran's Day.
Have a current Discover Pass at the ready. The toilets have TP but my goodness, they sure do STINK -- normal, but NOT from 15 feet away. The toilet seat in the women's was cracked/chipped (about 1/4 missing) which may be adding to the aroma.
The trail is in fabulous condition, springy and pine-needled making for very comfortable travel. We only came across one step-over and no standing mud. Be aware that there is no running water on this route, and bring appropriate fluids according to your length of travel.
There is one spot where a root or rock has been removed - foot by foot deep right in the tread -- near where a new bridge has been put in. Recent maintenance (fresh lumber beyond the bridge) may mean it's been under repair and perhaps is not quite finished. Just watch your tread so you don't trip in it or roll an ankle.
This mountain shares access with mountain bikers who fortunately have their own trails, or this would be a pretty chaotic place to hike! Glad we got an early start; my guess is the holiday made this November Tuesday an outlier.
Our early start meant we had the foggy mountaintop to ourselves with plenty of hikers heading up as we returned. Several hikers in our group needed to be back for afternoon appointments so we opted to turn around at Grand Prospect instead of tacking on East Peak. We were a mite bit early for views but caught a few just as the fog started to burn off. We had perfect conditions and blue skies by the time we got back to the parking lot.
Only found one poop bag about .1 miles from the parking lot. We didn't see it going up so... sadly, it must have been one of the 5 dogs' owners heading up. We encountered a few hikers with offleash dogs. I heard some mutterings in my group about that, but both pups seemed very well-behaved and we had no run-in or scare incidents.
Highlights on the morning included beautiful perfectly illuminated spider webs, a fleeting rainbow high overhead at Grand Prospect, great people, some fleeting views, and ZERO RAIN. Great holiday trip. So jazzed about it I signed up to lead again, this time to East Peak in January!
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