Rick and I felt the need for a quick get-away today to play in the snow. Our destination: Dooley Summit, at which point we would decide whether to head east toward Dooley Mt. or west toward Bald Mt. Once we got to the pass, we decided to go west, hoping the trees would protect us from the strong southwest wind. It worked .... up to a point.
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| Bald Mt. from cattle guard area |
The heavy snowfall of last Wednesday has added to what was hiking conditions a month ago! But the warmer days made for sticky snow which packed frequently on the bottom of my snowshoes. Retracing our steps at the end, we couldn't even see the outline of my snowshoes in my tracks! I felt like I was walking on little Japanese elevator shoes - the clump of snow on the bottom was so big! But we just kept stopping and knocking it off. For some reason, mine packed up and clumped much more than Rick's. Must have been a design issue!
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| The abandoned road |
Once we hiked about a mile to the cattle gate (prior to heading south around the first big knoll) we decided to stay in the lee of the mountain and explore a very little used road that Rick was pretty sure would loop around the hill and back to the main road. It was definitely limited in its definition of "road" (especially when covered with windswept snow), but it did provide some nice views of Bald Mt. and the Elkhorns, AND no wind! Mostly we admired some gorgeous big Ponderosa pines and discovered a possible place for some Christmas trees - a few lodgepoles up there!
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| Elkhorn glory |
Not a long hike, but good to get out. Skies were clouding up by the end.
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| Our route today. |
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