Day 3
7.4 miles, 1048ft gain/2730ft loss. Fitbit data: 21,547 steps, 39 floors.
We awake to, yep, the wind blowing…And, a nice layer of dust over everything inside the tent. At least, when I pull the flap back and take a gander at the conditions outside, there is nothing but blue sky!!!
After a quick breakfast, it’s time to load up camp on our backs, and head for the trailhead. It’s all downhill now to our bypass trail, at 1.7 miles, and then a quick 1.16 miles over to the Snowgrass trail, that we will follow the rest of the way back to the parking lot. The whole way is mostly in the trees, and about 90% of the trail is dirt, making for easy footing. At mile 3.4, you’ll pass a falls that you can hear through the trees long before you see it, to kind of help break up the monotony of your forest walk. However, as there are steep banks on the trail side, and lots of trees, it makes it very difficult to get a good picture.
Continuing along, it’s another 1.6 miles, to reach the bridge crossing over Goat Creek, at mile 5. It’s a well-constructed bridge that now has signs posted for stock to use a crossing instead of this bridge. Looks as if it was used by stock at one time, but perhaps now there’s some concern that heavier animals might do damage to it? It does look old…
“…Oh, well, dusty road it is…”
At mile 6.7, you’ll come to a junction signed Horse trail 96A? shortly before reaching the Snowgrass Flats parking lot. Well, if you don’t want to walk the road from the parking lot back to the Berry Patch parking lot, I strongly suggest taking this junction. Since it said horse trail, I kept going, not realizing until we came to the end of the trail, that we’d be walking the road…Oh, well, dusty road it is…
A great 3 day!!! So much to see and do, with pretty short mileage for all 3 days. If someone is just getting into backpacking, this is a great one to take them on. Lots of water, mostly good campsites, and incredible views. Although there’s no guarantee, we also saw lots of animals too, goats both days for us to watch. I can strongly suggest this as a must do backpack!
Living vicariously through your trips. Walking along w you in my mind. Such a beautiful description. Not much for the wind though. Ah, the serenity of being out!
Enjoy it all.
Thanks AnnMarie!! So glad you stopped in and said hi, always good to hear from you! And, thank you for reading, I’m always humbled and happy when someone posts a very nice comment!!!