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The walk up to Alberta Falls went quickly as we chatted with many people along the way and surveyed Half Mtn in the distance.
Once we made the turn onto the Longs trail, we were alone for most of the day.
The trail quickly crosses over the river with an impressive view. I recalled John posting this view awhile back
Lisa Foster's discription says something to the effect that 1/2 mile past the bridge is a good spot to jump off the trail and begin the bushwhack up Half Mtn. None of us had ever been on this trail before.
We did our best to judge what 1/2 mile felt like and finally unanimously agreed we spotted an acceptable entrance into the tangled woods. We fought through for awhile and it wasn't very pretty. Lots of downed trees and tight branches grabbing at us.
Soon we were all realizing this might not be as much fun as we had hoped. Every once in awhile a nice elk path would open up and make it a little easier and at one point through the trees we spotted what looked to be a much easier route and got excited. As we neared the opening I began to laugh. We had found a trail.....the same trail we were just on before fighting the forest. Essentially we just shortcutted a long switchback and took 4 times as long to get to the exact same place as we would have if we stayed on the trail.
It was a little embarrassing, but we're all friends here...right?
We decided we were way too early on the trail to start heading up the SE side. We followed the trail for a good distance more and again found what seemed like a suitable route.
It wasn't. It was a constant fight againt the forest and although we were making good progress in terms of elevation, we were doing much more scrambling than desired.
Finally we decided we still must've jumped off the trail too early again. We fought to get more SE on the mountain for awhile to see if it opened up a bit. Ultimately we stopped for lunch, dropped back down to the Longs trail, and marched on towards the Boulder Brook junction.
We kept our eye out for another suitable path up Half Mtn, but I think the wind was already out of our sails by that point.
Once we hit Boulder Brook, I knew this was going to be good. Boulder Brook is a hidden gem of a trail. As the trail continued, the disappointent of skipping Half Mtn turned to joy.
I couldn't believe how beautiful this trail actually is.
Just stunning....
I couldn't walk more than a few steps without taking another picture.
Finally we got back to the car. Half Mtn is still on our list and we'll make sure to stay on the trail much, much longer next time to get an easier run. Until then, Boulder Brook is a worthy hike unto itself.
