Snuck up the West Fork Foss valley for a late fall trip just up to Malachite Lake. Snow is coming to this area soon but today just misty cold rain fell lightly on us on and off.
The big tree across the trail indeed has some footholds cut into it, but they are not too large so take care. Especially in the rain. What I think is interesting about this tree is that you can see how it snapped off well upslope of the trail and then tobogganed downward for maybe a hundred feet, branches getting stripped on the way down. Just bad luck that it finally lodged itself right across the trail.
The going can be a bit slow on the trail, with large rocky sections comprising most of the tread. And there have been some gully blowouts and slides in the last few years that make things a bit tougher.
The final .2 from the main trail up to Malachite Lake was strenuous. Very steep rockpile kind of stuff.
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