drm wrote: ↑June 2nd, 2022, 10:10 amI tried getting to Observation Peak via the Observation Trail yesterday but where the trail goes north of the peak, there were too many steep traverses with long runouts for me. The snow was soft on top, but hard below, so I could get either a strong bite from spikes nor stamp bombproof steps.
I figured the Big Hollow Trail would have too many trees down for me. And how was the Big Hollow Creek ford?
Steep Snow: the Big Hollow side has relatively safe slopes- no ice ax was needed!
Big Hollow Creek Ford: well it was lost in the snow, but we happened by it on the way down. It was an easy hop over the creek.
Dry Creek Ford: not great, but doable. There is a long tree, with many limbs, that crosses the creek. The narrow, most-limbed section is right over the deepest water. We had to pull the dog up and steady his back legs to get him back across.
Trees down: there are about half a dozen trees down which require an off-trail detour, and most of those are in the first mile. The early trail conditions had me worried, but it gets way better right after that!