A few weeks back I was able to head out and explore a new trail as a hike that I've been wanting to scout for a while. It's actually a double black diamond extrememly difficult mountain bike run and I intend to now go run it on my mountain unicycle this summer. it should be one epic run!
The trail has a huge section of steep rugged slab / rock terrain and some very steep areas. It made for a great, but its going to make for one tough ride when I make it back there on one wheel!
I couldn't resist, this tree was just asking to be photographed and it needed to be climbed, although there wasn't much left of it. haha
Here is what much of the trail is like, where there isn't really a well defined trail, there are many possibilities coming down the slabs, so you just pick the nicest route and head on through.
Since this was still pretty early season, we definitely hit a lot of snow, and a lot fo the trail that isn't exposed slab, is in the forest on the north mountain face, so the snow will take some time to clear, for sure!
All along the route, there are interesting slab and small cliffs on one side, so of course, they need to be photographed!
The still snow covered background mountains do make for a beautiful backdrop though.
I love the scale here of the trees, background and cliff. It was a easy scramble to get up as well, with an option to simply hike around it.
We found a nice lunch area along the top ridge before the final approach up to barrier mountain, so I captured some incoming clouds that were threatening a little.
Sure can't complain about this lunch spot view!
Just chilling
And finally, this is the steep final ascent up to barrier mountian summit. We were unable to do this on this day, as the snow was far too deep, steep and dangerous to make the upper scramble, which is quite difficult in good conditions, so just stupid in these icy conditions.
I'll post some more of the panoramas and shots in my next post. Please follow if you want to keep up with these photosets! All comments welcome of course!