11.6 miles of hiking • 3500' elevation gain •
Another beautiful February day in the gorge. The lower flanks of Hamilton were bare, the sky was blue, but there was a very strong wind blowing from the east. The summit had a couple feet of snow, but the saddle was also bare. I made the fateful decision to wander the jeep trails north of the saddle, and ran into far more snow than I really had wanted to deal with. Should've brought the snowshoes! Even though, it seemed silly to even have gaiters on during the "main" (popular) stretches of the hike. Lesson learned.
