This was a fun hike. The forecast looked relatively clear for the weekend on Saturday, with tons of rain Sunday, so decided to try and make the most of a Saturday hike. I got to the trailhead around 11 with plenty of parking.
The route up has a few different options, but generally if you have a map printed and/or downloaded, you should be able to easily find your way up. I marked this trip as having intermittent snow, however it was incredibly minor and really was only an issue if you take the ridge line up (pink trail in attached image). If you take the green instead, you won't have that issue (unless more snow arrives, entirely possible considering the weather Sunday). I did the pink up and the green down, although I think the green is the better route for most folks.
The going was harder from multiple trees fallen on the trail. Pretty early on I came across a big one that made me think seriously if I wanted to deal with this the whole hike. Fortunately, that was the hardest to cross. I think there were 4 trees on the trail in total, but I didn't keep count. Because they were all wet, it is slippery crossing the fallen trees. I stayed slow and careful. There was one tree that had fallen over a rocky part of the trail, and as I was navigating a rock moved under my feet and I had a slow fall (I have a sturdy hiking stick and I was grabbing a branch at the time, so I didn't get hurt).
With the volume of rain, the rocks were slippery. I had replaced my boot tread last year, so I was perhaps a little over- confident here and had a few slips.
Other than that, it was about as I expected -- lots of Grey in the sky, wind rustling in the trees, several places rock climbers have had fun, and plenty of moss.
One other thing I'd like to note, I did bring some candied pecans. These tasted amazing while hungry on the trail. I am so glad I made that impulse purchase the day before.
Beautiful and challenging hike! I'm glad I got to get out before the deluge hit hard, and that I did bring all my rain gear. I just wish I had better gloves, so I think I'll shop for that today.
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