Today I went hiking with my dad and younger brother JJ. We decided to try something new and we drove out west taking highway 67 to the Horse Thief Falls trailhead. It was a nice day probably in the 70’s but very windy. We arrived at the trailhead at around 7:45 am. It wasn’t very clearly marked, and at first I was not sure if we were at the right spot. Eventually we came to a sign; left was Horse Thief Falls right was Pancake Rocks.
Pancake Rocks was the longer of the two being a six-mile hike round trip. However, by the time we reached this reassuring sign we were ankle deep in snow. Considering it is going to be June next week snow is not something that crossed our minds and none of us were prepared. We didn’t want to turn back so we made the mistake of trying to trek through it.
The snow got worse as the elevation increased and we found ourselves in three and four foot drifts on the trail. JJ and I were wearing short pants, which made this quite miserable. Every time the packed snow gave way we sunk and fell and the thick ice scraped up our legs; this combined with the bitter cold made the experience excruciating, to say the least.
Despite common sense we continued upward until we reached the top of the little mountain. The top was snow free because of the sun so our hopes rose a little. They were soon dashed to pieces after we went down into the valley and realized the snow got even worse. At this point we were exhausted from the trek up and we all decided to turn back, dreading the miles of icy snowy that awaited us. We never saw the Pancake Rocks.
The hike down was worse. I made the desperate attempt of going straight down rather than wasting my time on switchbacks and got stuck in about four feet of snow. I was about to cry at this point my legs were in terrible shape and I was literally stuck in the icy frozen snow. My dad came down with a hiking stick and we made it back to the trail…
Several hours later we made it back to the sign, and despite our low spirits we decided to venture out to Horse Thief Falls. This was packed with snow but not as badly and it was much shorter, so we did get to see a pretty waterfall. The hike was difficult and took us almost six hours because of the snow. When we got back to the car my legs were severely scraped up and my hiking boots and socks were soaked in blood because my socks were to short and the wet snow caused rubbing.
I don’t think there is normally this much snow on this trail during this time of the year from what I have read. It was a learning experience and I will definitely not try this trail again until I am sure all the snow is gone ;).
I took a few pictures and we have a youtube video but I didn’t get the really deep parts because taking pictures was the last thing I was really thinking about as we crossed through this part.
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