A
local friend, Jim, wished to get his jeep onto a trail - for the first
time. Pole Hill was on my mind as it's close and a good "all around"
type of trail - some obstacles, some good scenery, some variety in the
trail.With the higher elevation I deviated to Moody Hill, just west of
town. It was lower in elevation (or so I think). Why lower elevation -
snow. The snow line is getting lower - decidedly so this past couple of
weeks (though no snow in town).
Moody Hill has two snowy inclines that can cause concern. From the
eastern trailhead, the trail climbs and is in the trees on a north face
of the mountain. If there is snow at the trailhead there should be snow
on the trail. There are two rocky "steps" that need to be climbed. If
they have snow, they could be difficult.
The western trailhead is up past the Crystal Mountain neighborhood -
but to get up to the neighborhood from the valley road (44H) there is a
notable climb. Hopefully it would be ?partially? maintained and safe.
We arrived at the eastern trailhead's parking lot and there was snow.
Three to four inches. There will be snow on the trail going up. I drove
up the trail while Jim waited at the trailhead. Aside from the very
lowest 100 yards, I was first tracks in the snow. I had difficulty
getting up (both differentials locked / all four tires turning) one of
the sections and turned around. We'd try the western trailhead.
At the western trailhead the neighborhood road was perhaps at the limit
for my desire. My tires did not slide (going up and at the end of the
day going down) but there was evidence of other vehicles sliding. I did
keep in mind - slide to the high-hill side of the trail and get one
side into the safe gutter (vs slide to the downslope side and slip down
the hillside). There were enough tracks that a few people are still
living up there (in the winter).
An uneventful climb we were on top with wide views on a sunny day.
There was a forest fire through the area and all of the pine trees are
burned / bare leaving open views. The trees are starting to blow down /
deadfall as well.
There was one day-old set of track on the trail but they eventually
turned around and we had untracked (aside from animal tracks) trail. We
poked out to one spur but had to pull two deadfalls off of the trail to
make it passable. A panorama photo was taken at this spot. Also
near this spur is a second, shorter spur that has a large tree across
the trail. It's been on my mind to pull it aside. We looked at it a
couple times today but decided - another day. The "another day" will be
in the spring as the Forest Service will lock the gates December 1.
From the spur we went to the quarry. I was a tad surprised - nobody was
there and there were no prior tracks in the snow. While we were there
one side by side showed up. The commented upon needing to winch up one
rock set at the eastern trailhead. They came in/out from the eastern
trailhead and us from the west.
As Jim has never had his jeep offroad we found a couple obstacles to
toy with - a step (that was "just right" for what his jeep would do)
and an incline with some rocks. Time at the quarry complete we drove
out the western trailhead (going slowly down the incline to the
valley). We took the northern route back to town (Rist Canyon) with a
stop at the KUNC transmitter.
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