I almost always have fun on my hikes but today – not so much.
I had heard via WTA trip reports that the Middle Fork Road had been cleared of snow and trees so I figured I would drive to the Middle Fork parking lot and hike up Garfield Ledges from there. It was a reasonable plan but stuff happened.
The lot was closed today for plowing and maintenance. No problem. I decided to drive to the Garfield Ledges parking lot but about 50 yards down the road I could see it had not been plowed so I very carefully executed (the road is narrow) about a 15-point turn and drove back down to a turnout near the CCC Trail. I parked there and walked a couple of hundred yards down the road to the CCC Trail, headed NE (the trail also heads in the other direction).
Shortly after I got onto the trail I started to encounter nasty blowdowns such as:
I should have turned around but, like a stunned cow I kept going. It got even worse:
Several of the little bridges are out of commission such as:
Believe it or not, the pictures above, which I took thinking I would show how bad it got, were actually some of the mildest trail disasters. The worst ones were so bad I had no thought of pulling out the camera. Particularly after the one that was so thick I had to bushwhack off the trail, uphill in deep snow, post holing, about 50 yards, just to get around the blockage. And when I headed back to where I thought the trail should be there was no trace of a trail, but plenty of enormous bear paw prints, looking fairly fresh.
So, this was not fun. But I am going back tomorrow because somewhere along the way my Garmin fell out of its holder and I would like to at least try to get it back. I hope my experience today will help me navigate a tad better tomorrow, but if not, oh well.
I got back by walking along Middle Fork Road about 3 miles. I kept seeing vehicles driving NE, towards the Middle Fork parking lot, and then driving back the other way after they realized there was no way to park. There were a few spots at Camp Brown, about .5 miles from the Middle Fork parking lot, but they were taken by the time I walked back.
You can’t win them all.