On Saturday the 15th we took advantage of the free park weekend and went through GTNP to the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway. Our original plan was to hike an unnamed trail in GTNP that forks off from the main road, but seeing as it is winter, summer trails are rarely defined. Thus being the case with our mystery trail we just kept on driving until we found a path suitable for hiking. Seeing our hidden trail was halfway through the park we just drove until the road closed, which happened to be at Flagg Ranch Resort (
http://www.flaggranch.com/). Knowing that this was a huge destination for snowmobilers and cross country skiers we figured that this was a place we could find a fairly decent trail.
Flagg Ranch isn't a place that we visit often, or at all really. This was only my second time navigating the windy and poorly marked area of Flagg Ranch. The one time I was here previously, it was summer and we were heading over Grassy Lake Road. As winter does to so many things, it utterly and completely changed the scenery which made it much more difficult to figure out the trail situation.
We parked in the Commercial Parking lot (the public lot was full) and headed up the plowed road. We then reached what should have been a fork in the road, a sign pointed snowmobiles to the left and there was a sign marking a trail head for cross-country skiing. There seemed to be a trail that was buried beneath the last snow fall and we thought that with Kevin and I leading the way that we would establish it enough to follow. Unfortunately, after about 50 feet the trail dead-ended and Kevin and I were back to sinking waist deep in snow. So we gave up this trail, and slugged our way back out to the snowmobile trail. We followed this along until there was another more literal fork in the road. One fork lead up next to a cabin and the other seemed to veer off into more of a wilderness. So of course we took that path (it was on the right hand side). We followed this around for about 10 minutes hoping to find a cross-country ski trail that we could follow. Eventually we did, well we found another path that was buried beneath the last snow fall, however this narrow and half buried trail was preferable than walking down a road 15 feet wide, so we took this right too.
The path was easy enough to follow, it was very narrow and if we stepped an inch off the trail we would sink to our hips in the snow. The kids made an easy trip out of it as they are about a fifth our weigh, half our height not to mention a great deal narrower than us. After a bit we came to another trail marker and decided to follow it ,though there was no established trail. The previous trail we were on seemed to lead into the "housing" area of Flagg Ranch and that is not exactly what we had in mind when we set out. So we said screw it, and with Kevin breaking trail we all followed. happy to finally be headed into wilderness. The markers that we saw said we that the destination point was Huckleberry Hot Springs, however the trail head maps were pretty bad. They didn't indicate where you were on the map, didn't have the trail clearly marked, didn't describe the hike or distance to the Spring. So it was a craps shoot, and we just walked.
Kevin wound us through trees, and near the edge of a steep bank that lead down to a stream. We stayed a ways back with snow being the deceptive trickster that it is we couldn't be certain of the edge of the bank.
We figured this was as good a place for any for a campfire so we told the kids we were taking a break and set out to make a fire. It wasn't a remarkably easy task, though it wasn't all that difficult either. Kevin had brought with us some tinder and kindling, so all we needed to collect was the basic and easy to find dead twigs and branches to keep it burning. Not to difficult a task in a forest recently abused by pine beetles, but made a bit more cumbersome by the four feet of snow we had to trudge through to get it.
We had a lunch of hot dogs, pretzels, carrots and water, with cream soda as the special treat. While we were in the middle of prepping our lunch, two cross-country skiers had followed our trail and skied right into our little "camp". They asked us if "we broke trail" and we told them that we did, so they had to turn around a bit and find their own path through. We stayed at our "camp" for about a half hour, then we all helped bury the fire and set back out this time following the trail of our impromptu guests. Eventually this trail met up with another trail, and we just followed along. Seeing as we already had lunch, and that is what we typically use as our half way point we didn't have any set place to turn around. The girls were doing an excellent job as always in their own battle to be in the lead. Jack however was beginning to slow, so on a ridge above the creek we decided to turn back and head home.
This is where the day became a little vexing, somehow, heading back on the same trail we missed the fork where our visitors connected to the path we were now on. Eventually we reached the snowmobile trail and had to make a left or right. Admittedly we were a bit lost, so we just set out in one direction, knowing sooner our later we would come across some sign, or marker. After all we were at a resort and on a well established trail, not breaking snow pack in a forest. Eventually we wound up in the residential neighborhood and there was a man plowing the road, Kevin asked him how to get back to the parking area, and as it turns out if we had just taken a left when we arrived back on the snowmobile trail we were only about 10 minutes from our car. Oops!
With our side-tracking, we hiked about three miles and spent about 4 hours outside. Lulu and Jack both napped on the way back into town. It was a splendid adventure. Between the purr of the snow-mobiles the silence was soothing, the big fat snowflakes were comforting, and the world sleepily tucked away safe beneath a quilt of snow was enchanting.
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