Trails Used
Haystack Road, North Twin Trail, Fire Wardens Trail, Lend-A-Hand Trail, Twinway, North Twin Spur, Frost Trail, Garfield Ridge Trail, Mount Garfield Trail, FR 117, Gale River Road, FR 22
Notes
Snow starts about halfway up Mount Hale. The last half mile is over a shallow monorail, best in spikes, but can be barebooted early in the morning before it becomes slippery.
I kept spikes on halfway down Lend-A-Hand Trail.
Twinway starts as bare ground, then a narrow monorail forms, but rocks and roots break it up in spots. I barebooted to just past the ladder steps above Zeacliff where the snow levels gradually increased. Heading up to Guyot there is still a lot of snow, very deep with a narrow monorail forming. The two miles between Guyot and South Twin could still be snowshoed if you really wanted to, but it was fine in spikes. There were very deep week-old postholes throughout, which looked painful for whoever left them. Snow was supportive early in the morning, but I would not want to be out here on a warm afternoon, you'll probably posthole to your waist. Twinway down to the hut is a mix of rocks and monorail with some ice, rock spikes are fine.
North Twin Spur, leaving South Twin for a quarter mile, is quite ridiculous at the moment. There is an extremely slippery, narrow, deep monorail with branches encroaching on the trail. The rest of the way over to North Twin is easier to deal with, not great but ok.
Frost Trail still is holding a decent amount of snow with a stable monorail
Garfield Ridge Trail from the hut to Mount Garfield is holding up better than I expected, the snow-covered sections are never too deep, and the monorail was stable. Plenty of bare sections along the way too, including the waterfall section, where I took my spikes off and picked my way up, easily avoiding the icy spots.
Mount Garfield Trail has a stable monorail for a mile, where it peters out quickly, the rest of the trail is a mix of the usual April conditions, - sometimes wet, sometimes dry, sometimes muddy.
After the water crossing, I hopped onto an old snowmobile corridor to Gale River Road, walking the road a half mile past the Gale River trailhead where I banged a right and followed the snowmobile corridor over to Haystack Road, and then back to Seven Dwarfs.