Opal/Battle Ax Hike/Snowshoe

18.5 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain •

I had my eyes on Beachie Saddle. I've never been up that way before, but it looked interesting on the map, so I thought I'd give it a try. Started at the Opal lot around 9:30, did the road side of the creek into town, then did Battle Ax trail past the old abandoned mines and up towards the saddle. I was thinking this hike was going to be possible, because even with snow, Battle Ax trail is essentially an old 4x4 trail all the way up, but my arch nemesis won: deep drifts on jeep roads etched into the sides of hills plus slippery snow.

I knew I might run into this, especially with these roads and how they get all drifty and all. Patchy snow started around 2800 ft, snowshoes went on at 3200ft, and I was able to get to about 3800, just about a mile before the saddle before the drifts got ultra-sidehilly and the afternoon-melty snow got slippery enough that it became unworkable. I followed Battle Ax Trail back down to where some jeep roads met, and took old abandoned roads towards Opal Pool and then Opal trail back. Battle Ax Mountain was looking awfully pretty, and is on my summer list for when all this snow melts out.