Mark Sundstrom

Today's hike was 9.7 miles. This is a popular loop hike, though it requires walking about 1 mile on the access road at the beginning or the end of the hike. I started at the Cub Lake trailhead because I wanted to make sure the bridge over the river wasn't flooded.

It took me about an hour to get to Cub Lake. Just past the lake, I talked to two hikers who had taken the wrong trail at The Pool junction, thinking they were going to Fern Falls. (See the "sign of confusion" in the photo album). Further along, I encountered two more hikers who had done the same thing, and when I got near the Pool junction, three more hikers who had just started up the wrong way. I think the sign is clear enough, but three different groups getting it wrong seems like a trend. A couple of confirmation signs wouldn't be a bad idea.

From The Pool, the trail heads up steadily to Fern Falls, with water running down the trail in the few places. The falls were as full of water as always.

I had heard there was a fair amount of snow on the trail to Fern Lake, so decided I would check it out and turn around if it got too deep or too tiring. It started out as patchy snow and eventually continuous snow, with a few downed trees blocking the trail, but it was pretty well packed down and not too tedious until the last 10 minutes or so. There are several feet of snow at the lake.

Heading back down to Fern Falls, there were a lot of people making their way up to Fern Lake, including a few planning on fishing. Some of them were the folks I'd turned around on the wrong turn to Cub Lake. One of them was pretty tired and decided to turn around after hearing about how much snow there was. He was a bit short on water but I had plenty of extra to give him. I finished the hike at 1:30 pm, having started at 8 am. A very sunny and beautiful day.

I've uploaded the GPS track to Every Trail.

A large Photo Album today.

I've never seen the Bighorn sheep before. Cars aren't supposed to stop along this section of road, but the one in front of me did, so I snapped the quick photo.