Jean, Mary Ann, and I headed to Ray Benson on a foggy Friday. The roads were dicey when we got to the pass, but we didn't have long on the ice. The parking lot was ice covered and pretty empty when we arrived around 10:45a. The temps were in the 30's, and it was snowing!. It was pretty obvious once we got to the trail that Ray Benson had gotten a decent amount of snow recently. The trail was pretty indistinct and in some places non-existent. But, Ray Benson is well marked and there are the mountains for reference.
We headed out in the opposite direction from the way we had gone last week on North Loop. We did the bulk of the hike before lunch and by the time we came out of the trees and arrived at the hut, the sun was shining. It was beautiful! A glorious day! We sat and enjoyed lunch and the scenery praising God for such a nice day. A couple of skiers came up to lunch in the hut while we were getting ready to leave. We headed back on the north side of the north loop trail, picking up some illicit snowmobile tracks which took us off trail for a bit. They were so nice to hike on though, that we stuck with them until we had to turn west. The snow was a pretty soft powder so it was quite the trek, lifting up your legs 6 to 12 inches each step. Those tracks were a nice break!
Beautiful day - we did the loop in a little over 3 hours with the lunch stop and were home by 4:30p.
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| a winter wonderland |
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| stopping to take off some clothes as we warmed up |
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| 3 fingered Jack breaks out into the sun at the North Blowout Hut |
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| Black Butte |
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| Lunch spot |
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| following the snowmobile tracks |
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| much of the way back looked like this - it was kind of fun blazing the trail |
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| photo op |
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| neat clouds and trees |
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| Hayrick Butte and Hoodoo in fresh snow |
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| Pan near hut |
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| pan of cloud |
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| pan near lunch spot, Black Butte |
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