Looking uphill from where we parked:
A quarter mile farther and it looked like this:
The snow was slushy but our snowshoes hardly sank in at all so we made good time.
At one mile up the road there's a switchback and no wheeled vehicles had been past there this season but an odd set of wide tracks, apparently weeks old continued all the way to the TH.
The tracks were similar to snowmobile tracks but were way too consistently spaced for that. Something had gone up the road and come back down without sinking in and making ruts. More on this later.
Above the TH, we set first tracks.
There was no wind at all yesterday so this was an unusual winter's day for this location. Unfortunately, the clouds didn't give us a break and rather than forge upwards in the fog and mist, we called it a day at 3,800' and retreated.
Shortly after we turned around we encountered a couple of guys hiking up, one with a snowboard and one with skis. We exchanged pleasantries and continued on our way. They mentioned that this was their second try and were there three weeks before but were foiled by too much wind and driving snow. I was thinking, boy, this guy with the snowboard is tough, hiking all that way with what looked to be a heavy load. I was soon to find out how he did it:
I made a good haul of trash on the way back too. The miscreants had tossed a short case box and a 6-pack box so I was able to carry all this back with even some in my pack. It all looked to be recent and atop the snow:
Hike # 38,
5.6 miles, 1594' EG, 3:21 total time.
(unless it's a means of access to the real route)