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A plan for a 3 mile trek, I ended up going 3.4 and around Springlake instead of sticking to the original trail. It was well marked, but I ended up taking the wrong fork at one point, due to only a quick glance at the map, and by the time I could cut back to where I wanted to be, it was marked as one way. (I still don’t understand the point of one way trails, but I do my best to listen to postings.) This led me on a bit of an adventure and took me to the other side of the lake, which is more trafficked due to the boat launches (not functioning due to the lake still being frozen) and the playgrounds and pavillions.
The terrain was a bit less covered this week, until the very end of the hike. It was much softer ground where there wasn’t ice, so the microspikes weren’t as worn out by the end of the day. Still, if earlier in the week hadn’t convinced me, this one definitely showed I needed less aggressive traction gear. It got me back to a much needed gear up at REI in the earlier part of the next week.
I hit pavement at one point, which I hate in my boots, but it was well cared for until you got into the shade. It still hadn’t really had time to do much thawing, so the final bit of my time was spent precariously on ice trying not to put my spikes back on.
Raven K 