Mount Isolation

Trail: Rocky Branch, bushwhacks, Davis Path, Isolation Spur

Conditions: Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular

“Trail froze nicely overnight. Could spike entire thing today but that will change with warm temps incoming. I snowshoed to summit and halfway down iso express passed some trail runners and questioned my decisions. So I ditched the shoes and ran the last four miles in my winter boots and heavy non-running gear. Made it two minutes from lot and was about on pass two hikers when I took a Superman style sprawling digger into the snow. Very embarrassing but much less painful than summer falls:) postholes reported yesterday are minimal and a non-factor. This one’s in awesome shape currently!”

Trail: Rocky Branch Trail, bushwhacks, Isolation Trail, Davis Path, Isolation Spur

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts

“The hike started at sunrise. We stayed in Gorham the night before so short drive to Rocky Branch trail head. The trail conditions were such that snowshoes are still the most effective form of traction start to finish. With the warm up coming i doubt this will change. The trail was a side walk, in great shape. The three of us made it to isolation fairly quickly, & then it was decided we would exercise route finding & navigation skills by breaking out the Davis Path/Isolation trail toward North isolation. It took over a half an hour to get to the junction with walls of snow created by the significant snow fall this year. Tree limbs weighed down with snow blocked the trail for much of the way. There will be many blow downs when this trail is clear. This was 40/48 of the 4ks in winter for me. A decent day in good company....”

Trail: Rocky Branch Trail, bushwhack, Isolation Trail, Davis Path, Isolation Spur

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow - Wet/Sticky, Snow/Ice - Postholes

“Started from the car in snowshoes and kept them on the full hike. We started with the usual route of up Rocky Branch, across Engine Hill, and ISO Express up the drainage. Everything is extremely well broken out, however someone did think skipping snowshoes was a good idea so now there are postholes in various places along the entire route. After we summited Isolation we decided for no good reason to try to reach North Isolation, so we broke trail from where ISO Express comes out up to the Isolation Trail junction, making very bad time and deciding not to keep pushing. We briefly considered attempting the Isolation Trail down, but made it maybe 200 feet before it was decided that was also a terrible idea. So we backtracked along Davis Path and retraced our steps all the way back.”