1/7/14 City Forest / Walden Park

Cold- 19 degrees when we got up, 17 when we started our hike, and 14 when we finished. Also very windy. We were afraid everything would be icy after all the rain and then freezing temps . The very short section of road from the Kittredge Rd. parking lot to the trail was icy but we were pleasantly surprised when we got on the West Trail- a nice firm surface and not icy- best footing since the storm a couple of weeks ago.

Still lots of snow

When we got to the rail bed we headed toward Forest Ave but the surface was not as firm and there was a glaze on parts - perhaps because it's more open to the sun. We went a short distance but then came to a large frozen pool of water that did not look safe and we turned back. Heading in the other direction from the intersection with the trail the first part is also open and we needed to stay in the old ski tracks. After a short distance conditions improved considerably and it was fine again . We walked to the intersection with the snowmobile trail and took that to the unnamed trail we use to get to the Loop Trail in Walden. I was going to head toward the rail bed but Kelley wanted to go the other direction and so we did, taking the long way on the loop back to the rail bed. There had been work on the trail and the trees and branches that blocked the trail after the ice storm had been removed. We walked the rail bed, again, back to the trail we use to get  to West Trail and complete our loop back to parking- that was also pretty good footing.

A few things  we saw

A nice hike when we expected problems with ice. Most of the time the woods protected us from the strong winds. We could hear it howling through the trees above and it seemed cozy to be protected from it. Kelley was happy to be out after the miserable, boring, rainy day yesterday and did more sniffing than usual.  I think she was probably disappointed that we didn't meet a soul the whole time.  2  1/2 hours