This is an unbelievable year.
We arrived at road end of the Dosewalips at 7:00 am and immediately found the make-shift trail circumnavigating the washout. The trail is very steep on both ends, and was quite a challenge pushing mountain bikes up, then down (more so down!).
The bike ride up the remainder of the road was a pleasure vrs. walking, though work nonetheless. There are several small trees down across the road that are easily ""hopped"", but a couple that require dismounting to get over. There are a couple of slides across the road in its upper stretches. The steep grade near the end is full of rockfall and requires considerable care on the return trip. Only one patch of snow exists that requires dismounting.
The campground at road end is FRIGID! You can feel the temperature drop as soon as you descend into it! For campers, I would recommend continueing the short distance up trail to Dose Forks Camp, which is much warmer.
We reached the Dosewalips TH one hour and fifteen minutes from our departure, and chained our bikes up to the hitching post. Yes, there was much humor in doing so.
The trail up the Dosewalips is in excellent condition to the junction with the Constance Pass trail, with only a couple of blowdowns that must be negotiated.
The Constance Pass trail is free of blowdowns and easily followed all the way to Constance Pass. Patchy snow begins at about 4,300', just below Sunnybrook Meadows. Sunnybrook Meadows (a basin) is covered in fairly solid snow. Then the snow disapears enroute to the pass.
Conditions on the upper slopes of Del Monte Ridge resembled those of late May. I was astonished at the dry conditions.
I have included a couple of pics taken from Sunnybrook Meadows, looking up at Del Monte Ridge. Incredible, isn't it?
The return was greatly aided by the mountain bikes, taking us an entire 20 minutes to reach the washout point of the road - and man was it a fun ride!
Don Geyer
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