This outing was suppose to be an "End of Winter Hike", seeing how spring is coming next Wednesday. Or for those who knew how I spent my previous weekend, this was my "Get back on the horse that just kicked you off" hike. I really didn't have a plan, but once I got to Ripplebrook it started spitting snow, so I turned left onto 4631 and headed up towards the 'Mile Post 3 Trail' or MP3 for short.

The road up was littered with boulders and drooping trees laiden with snow. The FS has been busy putting up wilderness boundary signs like this one a hundred feet up the trail.

The fresh snow painted the landscape a definite wintery scene that I always like to hike in if the snow isn't too much of a struggle. There was 3-6" of new snow laid upon hard crusty old snow, perfect conditions just for a pair on snowboots, I left my snowshoes in my rig.

No there isn't a tunnel on the trail. It is just a closeup photo of two trees near the trail that were notched out to allow packhorses to pass.

This is a trail! The vine maple and other smaller trees get pulled down into the trail corridor by the snow. There were a few of these areas that need some more brushing once the snows leave the high country. I flagged a couple of problematic sections that had me scratching my head.

The rockslide areas open up the views and also allow the snow to pile up. According to my walking stick/snow depth gauge sunk past 3' in these areas, but with the hard crust, I just kept on hiking without much hinderence.

It wasn't long before I topped out on the 704 trail to Mount Mitchill, my goal for the day. 

What a way to end the winter! But it does look like it might hang around in the higher country for awhile for I hear there is more snow coming. So don't put away those snowboots yet, get out there and enjoy it while you can, before the buzz of mosquitoes arrive.

Don