Snowshoeing like a Mountain Biker

My goal to day was to snowshoe up the Gussy, hit the reroute (on the Gussy) and then run down the new Mulikin, and then find my way back to the Echo Valley lot.  Word of caution, don't try parking at Echo Valley unless you have 4 Wheel Drive and an SUV!  Cars won't make it in the driveway.

There were some interesting snowshoe track on the Gussy.  The old tracks you see here on the ROW were the same tracks I saw the other day that entered from the Poly Brody but I never went far enough in to see where they went.  Well today I found out where they went.  They followed the Gussy for about a third of the way in and then veered off to the east coming back to the Gussy around the double stream crossing and then heading west to pick up the ROW.  Must have been a hunter.  Found another set of tracks that came from the blue trail cutting across the Gussy and heading east towards the Poly Brody.  Ironically, for the most part the Gussy was still virginal!

Temperatures were in the upper 20s but I had to ditch the jacket because I was getting way too hot too quickly and the wind was freezing my ears so I went to a balaclava.  Found some small pine trees blocking here and there that must have had snow on them causing them to bend over and more snow held them in place.  I got them free but I think I might have to come back and cut them.  I think I will start carrying a hand saw in my pack.

While there have been some unconfirmed Catamount sightings in our area these cat tracks belong to the Bobcat variety.  The gait is too short for a big cat.

A lot of activity on the Poly Brody.

The New Mulikin parallels this stream for a bit.

I retraced my route down the new Mulikin.  There might be a few sections on the new trail where the climbing will be a little steep but they will be short.  Otherwise this is going to be one kick ass trail.  There is one section that will be series of banked turns heading down to the old cart path.  I can't wait to start working on this re-route!

On the way back I took the west side blue trail and once again reconfirmed that I really hate this trail.  It blocked in numerous spots by blowdowns but the steep up and downs on this trail are pathetic.  I wanted to take the horse trail but couldn't find it so for the most part I snowshoed the blue trail.  Finally I picked up the Reach Around and then the lower part of the Gussy and was happy again!