Garfield via Garfield Trail, Monday, 5-27-13

[Paul Marinace]

Our group of 8, including 4 kids ages 7-11 started at 8am, with 36 degrees and sun. Fairly dry tail to the first water crossing, with little to no snow. The first crossing was tricky in the morning with wet rocks, so we bushwhacked along the left bank on a reasonably established path about 150 yards to the snowmobile bridge. The second crossing wasn't bad, but kids with short legs might have gotten wet, so we went upstream 150 feet to a downed tree, which made a serviceable bridge. Snow in the woods increased steadily from 1" at the river to about 3" at the summit. There was no loose snow on the trail, as it was replaced by some slush, and a lot of running water / mud. We bare booted all day, and there was no monorail left anywhere.

As the temps warmed, the snow melt from the trees became like rain - light at first, but fairly heavy by late morning. We put on rain coats, and wished we had brought our pack covers. The trail really became a river of 1-4" deep water, slush, and mud on the way down, and all of our boots were soaked by the time we returned to the river, which we crossed easily, not worrying about getting wet. No black flies at all with the snow and relative cold temps until we got back to the river, at which point they were fairly annoying if we stopped for more than a few minutes, but were not an issue if we kept moving.

Saw 20-30 people on the trail today.