~4 miles roundtrip
After a trail run on Saturday, headed up with J, Caleb, and DJ for a snowshoe up in Cameron Pass. This was my first trip to CP this year, as I've been drooling over early season snow totals but unable to do anything about it.
On the way up, Caleb suggested the Big South trail, which is the closest trail that usually has semi-reliable snow. It's also one of the only trails I hadn't been on before, so it was an excellent suggestion.
Guidebooks talk about picking your way through rocks (depending on snow cover), and the trail being narrow in spots, but we found it to be excellent. It's not a smooth freeway like Zimmerman or Michigan Ditch, but has more of a topographical flavor of RMNP trails. No wonder: it follows a fork of the Poudre ultimately into and through the park. This makes for a great summertime option for a long loop into the park (although there is supposedly a washed-out bridge 7 or so miles in, so you may not make it through with all of your oxen intact).
The new snow from the recent storms coming out of California was more of a wet "Sierra cement" that stuck to my skis, but I would not hesitate to recommend this for skis as well. Only a couple of corners with downed logs and rocks were a little tricky, but most of it was fun rolling hills.
One spot with a big field of talus looked like it would be fun scrambling in the summer as well. Definitely an all-season trail to check out, and we didn't see any other folks on this trail on a weekend.
It sucks when you lose all your oxen...not as bad as dying of dysentery though :)
ReplyDeleteHope you have a good holiday and new year - enjoy your break from school!
Thanks Nick, you said it!
ReplyDeleteHope you have good holidays as well -- first semester damn near killed me, but I'm told it gets better (at least, until it gets worse)! It was classes every day, so it should be more flexible and interesting with research. How's school for you?
We're going to focus on moving closer to Boulder next summer, since I can mostly work on either campus, so that should help. Hope to see you on the trails soon!
I am done in May :) Once you finish classes things are a lot better...I assume you probably have a few more semesters left though.
ReplyDeleteLet me know if/when you move this way - will have to get out for a run.