10 miles of hiking • 2250' elevation gain •
The road is plowed to about mp 7. Yahoos with big trucks have gone further, but at around mp 9, it was just snowcat tracks- some nice person groomed it yesterday for us, and there was a fresh inch or two of new snow on top of the groom. However that ended at about mp 10.5 (yes they went beyond the gate). We then had to break trail in some deep stuff, slow going. I had the stupid idea of turning off onto the spur road at the hairpin turn thinking it would be easier to take the Larch Mountain trail to the top. Assumed there would be plenty of tracks. It was harder and there weren't any tracks on the upper LM trail.
I had a fall coming back down the old road and flailing in the powder I felt something funny happening in my hip that frightened me. When we got back to the hairpin turn, my pal the workhorse wanted to head up to the summit via the road,but I was worried about the hip, and felt done so we headed down.
On the way down, we passed some testosterone laden humans who had driven up the unplowed portion of the road and gotten themselves stuck. They refused our offer of assistance. Hope they were able to get cell service and call their parents or someone with a winch.
