Today’s hike was kind of a spur of the moment one. I’ve been having a hard time doing my twice a week hiking since I retired (too many other things going on) – this week I realized that today was the only day I could hike – Saturday is supposed to be rainy so I decided to do a hike today. I’d been looking at what trails are opening up due to snowmelt and Rho Creek seemed like a good option – I always like it and it gives a good workout – plus it is easy to turn around at any point.

We headed out about the usual time and on the way I stopped at Fish Creek to see if I could see any progress on cutting out the road. I didn’t see any tree cutting, but I did see the following sign:

It says “Falling Trees Road Closed No Pedestrian Traffic Beyond This Point”. I assume that means they are working on cutting out the road finally.

After checking out Fish Creek, we continued upriver. We soon got to the 4670 road and headed up to 4671 and soon to the trailhead. We parked, got suited up and headed out. We walked up the road and saw an unusual sight – last time we hiked this trail there were a couple of memorial stones that were laid alongside the road. Today they were laid at the base of the trailhead marker sign:

We headed up the trail. There were a few spots where some decayed wood had fallen – we cleaned up those spots to throw the pieces off the trail. A bit further up the trail there is this old growth section with larger trees – there was an old blaze, all the big trees and all the moss on the ground – it was just beautiful so I had to take a picture:

A bit further up I noticed this mossy old blaze and some recent cutting – I had to take a picture of this as well:

As we proceeded along the trail, you could hear Rho Creek very well, but we only got a few glimpses of it. A bit further up the trail we got our first good look at it and it was running pretty fast and loud – this area it splits into two for a bit so there is an island in the middle:

Here is a video of the creek so you can hear how loud it was:

A bit farther up the trail I noticed this cut log with a date in it. This log was cut 31 years ago!

We continued up – this trail is pretty relentless with its elevation gain – it is a pretty continual uphill grade with a few short exceptions. At about a mile and a half into the trip, the trail enters an old cut area. When I first hiked this trail, this section was pretty rough, but it has been continually improved over the years and is pretty good now. This is what it looks like approaching the cut area:

We continued thru the cut and continued up. A bit farther down the trail we encountered the first snow on the trail. We had previously seen some snow down by the creek, but this was the first bit of snow on the trail:

A little bit farther up the trail we started getting a bit more snow – Thor was pretty happy about that:

We continued up – I was surprised the snow was still very patchy and intermittent. The upper crossing of Rho Creek (a stepover in drier days) was free of snow and the approach to Fadeaway spring was mostly snow free. I had to take a picture of Fadeaway Springs – it was full:

We continued past the springs and headed up thru the cut. Along the way I took a picture of the “view” – no view today – we were almost in the clouds:

We soon popped out onto the 4672 road which was mostly snow free:

There was more snow on the east side of the road and on the trail continuing east. I thought we could try it to see how it was. Once we left the road prism the snow disappeared again. We didn’t really see much snow at all – there were a few new logs down in this segment but not bad at all. I was thinking maybe we could make it to the old collapsed guard station or maybe up to Bear Camp where we camped last year. Unfortunately, when we got to the old junction with the Hunter Creek trail, we went from zero snow to a couple feet of snow in about 4 feet – that was going to be our turnaround point:

We stopped here and had lunch – I was a bit bummed we couldn’t go farther but I didn’t really want to mess with that much snow and I wanted to make sure we got back before it started raining.

After we ate lunch, while we were packing up I noticed something I had not seen before – 3 Rocks that were painted – they were hard to read but I’m very sure they say “Rho Creek Trail” – a few feet west of these rock there are other rocks with arrows pointing west:

I’d never noticed those rocks before. I had seen the arrows – always wondered what they were for.

We headed back and along the way I cleaned up a few small things as we headed down. We made REALLY good time back to the truck. Since it was so early, I thought it would be interesting to see if there was snow up on 4650 (Burnt Granite). We packed up and headed back and then I continued up 4670 to 4650 and drove down 4650. Someone had been up here recently cutting logs off the road. I drove down to where Burnt Granite crosses the road – there was essentially no snow the whole way. There was a little bit in one corner in the ditch but the road was completely clear. I decided to continue to the end to see what work was being done. It appears there is a mix of more traditional thinning work and also the “fuel reduction” work like they did around the Burnt Granite trail. It appears there is more work scheduled along this road.

When we got to the end, I found the south end of the 4650 road decommissioning – it used to go from 46 all the way up but the first 4 miles or so were decommissioned 8 or 10 years ago. I don’t think I’d ever seen this end of that so I had to take a picture (not really much to look at):

After that, we turned around and headed home. It was kind of a short day time wise, but we did hike almost 7 miles and do almost 2000′ of elevation! This is an absolutely beautiful old trail and I always enjoy hiking it!