My friends Ron and Tess invited me along to hike the Gray Wolf River trail. Ron and Tess just got married a couple of weeks ago and Tess was also getting over knee surgery from a few months back. Another friend, Cheryl and her daughter Stephanie also joined us.
The hike was pretty straight forward. There was no snow to speak of since the temps had been pretty warm for a few days raising the January freezing level to around 8000 feet. The trail is in OK shape except for a washed out section about 2 miles in. We ended up contouring the river for a bit until we got back on good trail. There were a few blow downs further in. When we got to about 3 1/2 miles, there was a
pretty bad washout that had us scrambling to get past. Tess probably had the hardest time crossing the washout since she was still favoring the knee she had surgery on. At about 4 miles, we reached another washed out section near where the old bridge used to be. We scouted out a way trail that looked to go further, but in the end we decided to turn around here. On the return trip to the car, we took the Cat Creek Loop Trail that really seemed to go nowhere in particular other than to lose about 300 feet in elevation.
Highlights of the trip:
Cheryl's hot cocoa with marshmallows in genuine Starbucks cups! Big Kahuna panini I bought at the Longhouse Market on the way to the trail. Learning about Ron's Bear Grylls hiking pants. Hiking with friends!
