Tough hike

Meanwhile, back in the real world, this activity report from one of our volunteers patroling the Carbon River corner of the park--a typical day in the forest for such volunteers:

Activity Report, Saturday, March 8, 2008, Green Lake

It’s still a tough hike to Green Lake. Conditions will vary depending on surface temperature, of course, and today the snow was mostly firm enough to support me without snowshoes. I carried them to GL and back today. Of course when that’s the case the surface can be slippery. That’s the tradeoff. I love my Yaktrac’s.

I cleared 5 inches of snow and ice from the foot bridge. There is at least 3 feet of snow in GL pass. Currently the snow level places the hiker around 4-1/2 feet above footbridge level. I cut in and compacted some steps down to the footbridge on both sides. They probably won’t last very long, though.

There’s another old growth down a short distance above the other one. Both are on the switchbacks above RF. This one you can crawl under, but I still need to cut the switchback in order to get around the other. Lots of smaller trees are down, including one at the RF overlook and one on the spur to the overlook. Also, there’s more debris on trail than I can remember from past years.

Only one set of prints made it to GL recently. He lost the trail below GL pass but managed to find the pass and re-set. Somehow he made it over the OG. Don’t know how; it’s chest high, on a 15 degree angle and slippery.

Snow begins shortly after the washout and builds to around 1-1/2 feet at GLTH. In a few places it has melted along the edge of the road so that you can avoid it. Otherwise it’s an ankle tester.

Plenty of visitors today, and some new tracks after mine on the lower part of GL trail, but I didn’t see the visitors. Probably just too much work for them.

George Coulbourn