I will start by saying I didn’t make it to the top. My friend I hiked with did. We parked at the SnoPark at 7:15am. There was a bunch of garbage by the gate that was gone when we returned. Thank you to whoever picked that up. The road is long and uneventful. There are about 4 trees down you can easily climb over. There isn’t snow til about 2.5 miles but it’s intermittent. At 3 miles up the snow is with you til the top. I left my pants and long gaiters at home. This was a mistake and even bigger mistake I didn’t want to carry my snowshoes up the hill. At about 3.5 miles we said the snow walking was for the birds and went straight up into the trees. It was pretty much snow free in there until just below the road. We cut a big horseshoe out of the road section. We just followed some game trails and took the path of least resistance. Once we got back to the road it was hard. I kept post holing up to my knees and the snow was crunchy and scraping my legs and they started to bleed close to the top. I tried it best but I was just too heavy for the conditions and no snowshoes. My friend is about 60lbs less so he was able to stay on top of the snow better and got to the lookout.
Distance - 9 miles
Time 7:15am-2:55pm 7:40h
Comments
hearingjd on Suntop Lookout
Bmoney, thanks for your kind comment. Your garbage fairies were volunteer USFS rangers John and Bruce...8 large bags of trash, dumped clothes, and junk.... and it smelled really bad!
Posted by:
hearingjd on Mar 19, 2024 08:23 PM
Bmoney_253 on Suntop Lookout
Wow super cool. Not the smelled really bad part but nice of them to volunteer and help clean up. Even if it doesn’t alway get mentioned it definitely doesn’t go unnoticed.
Posted by:
Bmoney_253 on Mar 19, 2024 09:33 PM
hearingjd on Suntop Lookout
That was actually me and my buddy Bruce.
BTW,looked like someone had dumped a bunch of women's clothes: shoes, coats, skirts, shirts, etc-- and it smelled like they urinated on it. We speculate that this was a relationship gone bad..
Wish they had just taken it to the dump!
Posted by:
hearingjd on Mar 19, 2024 09:39 PM
hearingjd on Suntop Lookout
How was the new deck at the lookout? We've been worried about the snow-load on the deck. Did you buddy notice anything out of whack?
Posted by:
hearingjd on Mar 19, 2024 09:40 PM
Bmoney_253 on Suntop Lookout
Well thank you! That’s terrible someone would bring all that to such a beautiful place. A reason many hated end up closed. I know that’s not the reason this one is just a general statement. The deck did great. He took some videos of the lookout and most of the snow is melted off the deck. There is some on the ramp and a couple of spots around the lookout. The stairs are clear and it’s still bright and fresh looking
Posted by:
Bmoney_253 on Mar 19, 2024 10:21 PM
Bmoney_253 on Suntop Lookout
You can actually see the stairs in one picture I posted
Posted by:
Bmoney_253 on Mar 19, 2024 10:22 PM