Headed out tot he mountains for a fall hike and was greeted with a winter wonderland! Based on past trip reports I wasn't expecting snow at this trail, but with he horrible weather on Saturday I probably should have haha.
The road up was actually super fun in my Forester. It was my first time testing out this car and I was having a blast getting up to the trailhead! My music was on shuffle and a song with the lyric, "I won't take the easy road" came on in the middle of the drive in a weird serendipitous moment. I saw a chevy cobalt coming down, unsure if they made it up the whole way or turned around and came down when they saw how rugged the road was! I would definitely say high clearance only if you don't want to be an anxious mess on the way up and down. Now that there is some snow on the road towards the top I would also add AWD or 4WD to that. My AWD definitely kicked in on a few snowy ruts in the road.
There was snow at the twin lakes parking lot/campground and it just got deeper as we went up. My dog is a rescue from Houston so it was his first time seeing the frozen white stuff and he was having the time of his life! I wore micro spikes on the way down, but only because my pup is a puller since he is still learning proper leash etiquette. My boyfriend just wore boots and was fine. The snow was melting off the trail and trees the entire time we were there, unsure if it will still be covered in snow in a weeks time? I suppose it depends on the weather up there! If it stays sunny I could see twin lakes melting out and the top of Winchester having some lingering snow.
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