A brief trail report from my outing yesterday. Heading out my door onto the north section of the Toe, I was pleased to see how packed and wide the trail was. Rumor has it that the entire length is packed out pretty well. I made my way through the neighborhoods down to the Carbonate trail head. From there, things looked promising. The start was well packed and even heading up the draw to the normal switchback start was packed out. The wind had blown the night before so there was some drifting but not too bad. I hit the switchbacks. Switchback 1 - all good. Switchback 2 - all good. Switchback 3 - this gets an OK. The trial is packed but starts to become narrow. One can still move fairly quick. Switchback 4 - the long one - it quickly turns to crap. Really narrow, too narrow to keep any kind of consistent pace, and a lot of post holes. I headed up past the first "steep" part of the switch back at which point I decided it was no longer worth it. It was to narrow and the drifting had filled in the trail for as far ahead as I could see.
Here's the downer, the trail is obviously well used. Unfortunately, everyone walks it instead of snowshoeing. Snowshoes would keep the trial wide and well packed. After a few outings on snowshoes, then walkers/runners could get on it and it would be like a summer trail. I guess I could do the same instead of expecting others to do it but I didn't and this winter is shot for setting this trail unless we were to get another substantial dump. Yea right!
Conclusion - Even with our lame snow year, Carbonate in February isn't happening unless the trail is set by snowshoes first. Note for next year!
February!
1 hour ago
