With spring just a few days away, time is running out for a hike in the snow this year. This being spring break week I had the time to find and take one. It was harder than I expected to identify a location within an acceptable driving distance from home where I had a high confidence of true winter hiking conditions. Not surprisingly, Summit County came to my rescue.
The
North Tenmile Trail seemed promising based on recent AllTrails reports, and when I arrived at the trailhead I felt like I'd made the right call. Lots of snow, but the trail itself was packed down enough that I didn't need snowshoes... OR SO I THOUGHT.
(Editor's Note: Foreshadowing is a sign of quality entertainment.)The sun was REALLY trying to burn through the light cloud cover when I started. The forecast had called for partly sunny skies, so this was about right.
The sun eventually broke through, and I got nice light to shoot a few spots along North Tenmile Creek.
I love scenes where you can get so many beautiful elements in one shot.
After a couple of miles the snow grew deeper and the tracks grew fewer. I didn't bring snowshoes with me, and did end up postholing more than I would have liked. I had just one set of snowshoe tracks to follow from someone who'd apparently gotten an earlier start than I had.
The payoff at the end of the trail is... this sign. Not exactly what I expect from Colorado hikes, where a lake, waterfall, or summit typically awaits at the trail's end to reward you for your efforts. Ah, well.
The return hike was made somewhat easier by the snow having now been trod upon three times. That enabled me to make up some of the time I'd lost struggling on the way out.
I don't typically care for much of the "hand of man" in my nature shots. But for some reason tracks in the snow seem different. It may be the bit of context they provide, or the subtle indication of the effort put in to get the shot.
It took me a longer-than-expected four hours to cover the seven miles, especially considering the trail only has about 990 feet of elevation gain. I blame the deep snow more than anything else -- it took me nearly an hour to cover the final mile to the turnaround point. Whatever the reason, it was still exactly the hike I had hoped for!
