Several of us decided we would see how far up the Rimrock Trail we could get.  I hadn't been on the MP3 trail for a while, and thought that would be a good access point.  We could do a bit of brushing on the trail and see how far up Rimrock we got.

On the way up, we found this reminder of past maintenance (probably the last time the trail got any significant maintenance):

After doing a bit of brushing on the way up (OK, quite a bit of brushing), we joined the 704 trail and made our way up to the overlook.  On the way up, this was the most snow we ran into - most of the trail was completely bare - the few spots that had any snow ranged from an inch or so, so this section that had maybe a foot in a few spots:

We made our way up the 704, stepping over quite a bit of blowdown.  I don't think this winter has been kind to the Rimrock trail.  Last time I hiked it, I seem to recall it being clear of blowdown.  We encountered probably 30 or so logs from the junction with the MP3 trail to the junction with the overlook trail. 

We continued to the overlook area, where were were surprised to see almost no snow at all.  There was a little bit on the flat area, but on the rocky outcropping, there was absolutely none at all:

We enjoyed the wonderful views from the top, seeing Mt Jefferson, Broken Top, Mt Washington to the south, and Mt Hood, Mt Adams and Mt Ranier to the north.  We then made great time coming back down.

The MP3 trail is in pretty good shape now - there are a few blowdowns (half dozen or so), and I think once things leaf out it will get a bit brushy in places, but we cut out a lot of brush on the way up.  I think it will continue to be a pretty good trail and an easy way to connect with the 704 early in the season.  It was incredible that there was essentially no snow on the last day of January.