January 27 Trail Report

Another cold night (sub-20-degree temps at the Lower Hulls Gulch trailhead) means that once again trails throughout the Ridge to Rivers trail system will be frozen solid first thing this morning. This means that if you are opportunistic and willing to brave the cold temps today, you should be able to visit any part of the system and be safe from muddy trails. With full sun, trail conditions appear to be thawing out around later morning to lunchtime right now; with significant cloud cover, expect that time to be a bit later into the afternoon. Take advantage of this first part of the day if you are looking at a long run, ride, or hike today.

As we observed yesterday, trails around the lower foothills have dried to some degree, but are still left with plenty of gooey, muddy sections that are still prone to being impacted by trail use right now. It seems very likely that you may be starting out at a trailhead with good trails, but you could be finding yourself coming around a corner further up the hill and finding yourself staring down a long section of mud. Please make the decision to turn around at this point and avoid the temptation to continue through these very muddy sections. We found examples of this on trails in locations including the Military Reserve, Hillside to Hollow Reserve, Polecat, and out on the Hidden Springs trails. Because of this, we continue to list most of the trails in these areas as FROZEN EARLY THEN MUDDY on the Ridge to Rivers Interactive Trail Map (https://www.ridgetorivers.org/trails/interactive-map/).

Thank you for your continued patience in navigating our current winter trail conditions within the trail system. For a list of winter trail alternatives and etiquette, please visit the Wet Weather and Winter Trail Use webpage (https://www.ridgetorivers.org/trail-guide/trail-etiquette/wet-weather-and-winter-trail-use/).