Working on the Trail to Mt. Caro Marion

April 3rd (Friday) 

This morning the sky was filled with broken clouds and the sun was just peaking through a crack.  There was one cloud that hung around Baldy Mountain that looked a lot darker than the rest, and it was not long before our inlet between the mountains was socked in, and it began to snow.  It was a beautiful snow, not wet and heavy, the flakes were light and fluffy looking, and they settled slow enough that one could watch a snowflake fall and settle on the dock, where it remained; it did not melt.  When the cloud passed us by, the sun broke out again, and the little skiff of snow quickly melted, but it was not warm.

When we headed out later in the morning we looked up and watched as a snow tornado sat up on the top of the mountain directly above us.  We kept expecting the tornado to reach the edge and all of the snow to blow outwards, but it did not seem to move. 

It appeared to remain in one spot, just back from the cliff face, it looked like someone had a really hot fire with a lot of white smoke.  As another gust came, new snow was picked up and spun into the spiral creating an even denser area at the bottom before it spread out as it climbed.  It was very cool to watch!

We had decided not to follow the creek for the beginning of our trail, so we headed up the already cleared path.  

The beginning part of the path that the people had previously cleared was well done and needed little work, but we quickly got into an area where they had simply cut everything down, and not cleared a path among the scattered debris.  They had also left a lot of the thick plant stocks about 8” long which made a dangerous minefield to walk through, it was easy to trip or stub a shin on the angled protrusions.  We cleared and cut back a path through this area until we came to a band of evergreen trees that came down to the path.  At this point we were most of the way up the already started trail and we decided to head up this band of trees to see if we would meet up with our ribbons up above. Sure enough, we came almost right up to them, and we decided that this was the best route.  As we worked our way back down, we cleared and marked the trail, connecting it to our finished part down below.  

The area of forest that we were going through was full of sticks and twigs coming out from the side of every tree from top to bottom, at first it seemed like it would make it more work clearing the path, but we quickly found that everything was incredibly brittle.  The soil was also incredibly soft and fluffy, filled with layer upon layer of decomposing sticks and twigs.  

We made Jason a long and sturdy club out of the base part of a 2.5” diameter tree, and our work became easy.  Jason went ahead with the club, and with every stroke up and down the edges of the trees that we wanted to go between the sticks and twigs went flying.  It sounded like an odd wind chime as each stick and twig made its own unique pinging sound as it broke off.  I came along behind clearing the ground and marking the trail.  
This was an area of forest that could make one feel strong.  Fallen trees that were in our way that I normally would not have been strong enough to move by myself, I could easily lift and slide aside.  Root structures that were in our way I was able to wiggle and push around and finally pull out, or else stomp into nothingness, and any twigs still left on the trees that stuck out into our trail, I simply whacked with my hand and they came snapping off.  It was a fun afternoon!