I think it’s safe to say that this weekend was wet. A nice healthy rainstorm came in late Friday night and decided to stick around until early Sunday evening. Now that we’re into mid March the temperatures have warmed up but we still have snow on the ground. Well, I should say we did have snow. Thanks to the rain, what snow was left disappeared rapidly.
Normally the rain would put the kibosh on any type of outside activity but Herm and I thought it would be a good idea to go and explore the forest to see what kind of damage was being done by all the water and how badly the trails were getting washed out. We planned to do a short hike on the Owl Gap Trail to see what kind of condition it was in for riding and then drive around to assess the flooding. It’s safe to say we got more than we bargained for.
The roads getting into the forest were almost completely clear of snow and ice
which was a bit of a surprise to both of us so we had very little trouble getting into the trailhead at Owl Gap. Of course, we did encounter a few downed trees across the road that needed to be moved and we had to pull one yokel’s car out of the mud but other than that things were just a bit sloppy but easily passable. We hiked the Owl Gap Trial in a mild rain. It was a little difficult to navigate the trail as it was now a stream running down from the ridge but we managed to make our way to the top. After we explored around on foot we decided to get back in the car and cruise some fire roads.
The amount of water running down trails, along roadside ditches, busting out of the hillsides, and raging through normally mild stream channels was mind boggling. It was so spectacular we decided to go back on Sunday to check a few more places. It’s was incredible to see what a healthy dose of rain mixed with snow melt could do. Hopefully the trails will dry out soon because it was nice to be back in the woods. However, next time I’ll be taking my bike.
Normally the rain would put the kibosh on any type of outside activity but Herm and I thought it would be a good idea to go and explore the forest to see what kind of damage was being done by all the water and how badly the trails were getting washed out. We planned to do a short hike on the Owl Gap Trail to see what kind of condition it was in for riding and then drive around to assess the flooding. It’s safe to say we got more than we bargained for.
The roads getting into the forest were almost completely clear of snow and ice
which was a bit of a surprise to both of us so we had very little trouble getting into the trailhead at Owl Gap. Of course, we did encounter a few downed trees across the road that needed to be moved and we had to pull one yokel’s car out of the mud but other than that things were just a bit sloppy but easily passable. We hiked the Owl Gap Trial in a mild rain. It was a little difficult to navigate the trail as it was now a stream running down from the ridge but we managed to make our way to the top. After we explored around on foot we decided to get back in the car and cruise some fire roads.The amount of water running down trails, along roadside ditches, busting out of the hillsides, and raging through normally mild stream channels was mind boggling. It was so spectacular we decided to go back on Sunday to check a few more places. It’s was incredible to see what a healthy dose of rain mixed with snow melt could do. Hopefully the trails will dry out soon because it was nice to be back in the woods. However, next time I’ll be taking my bike.
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