There’s nothing like a hike on a foggy day to cure cabin fever.
Starting from the Bowl and Pitcher parking lot, the paved trail down to the swinging bridge was very icy. We have had several freeze thaw cycles since the last snow, which means that all the snow that has been walked on has melted a little and refrozen, leaving lumpy slippery terrain. The bridge itself was not icy, but the crib steps on the other side were full of frozen puddles.
Once across the bridge, the trail is most challenging near the trailhead. As I hiked farther, fewer footprints accompanied me, and the snow was softer and less used. It was also less slippery. About a half mile downstream from the parking lot, there was a sizable tree across the trail. I easily hiked around it, and continued on my way. After a few miles, I turned on trail 10 which is not correctly marked. Some day, someone needs to turn the sign so the arrows point the right way. There were only two sets of prints heading steeply up the hill on trail 10 which connected me to the upper side of the trail 25 loop. I turned upstream to connect with trail 210 and return to the swinging bridge. I chose to hike through the larch grove which isn’t as steep as staying on trail 25. At the bottom of the hill, near the mile 3 marker, another sizeable tree had fallen across the trail.
My total loop was about 6 miles. I was glad to have my microspikes the entire way. I saw a couple of guys on snow bikes and maybe half a dozen hikers total. It was a nice quiet day in the woods when I wasn’t too close to the rifle range across the river. They were shooting up a storm today.
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