Boxing Day,2004, Mt Catherine Loop

Parked the car at the Silver Fir lift station and hiked up a couple hundred yards to get past the sledders.  A couple of creek crossings low down, but the snow at "Grand Junction" was pretty good.  Descending toward Rockdale was a bit tricky as the brush made the track very narrow with no room to turn.  So I used an old old school technique to keep speed in check -- usng two poles held together as a "lurk" and dragged to the side.  Coverage from Rockdale up to the creek crossing was very sketchy -- if I had be going the other way -- I would have needed to remove skis on some sections, but plodding upward it was passable with care.  A little higher snow in "Windy Acres" was pretty enjoyable -- until I heard "That Sound" and discovered snow machine tracks over many of the roads.  Descended from Windy pass on sled packed and rutted snow.  Took "Hidden Valley" trail -- at first sled and 4x4 packed!!!   Once past the second switchback kicking and gliding on the "upper trails" was pretty good with minimal bare spots / stream crossings.  Descending from "Grand Junction" via "White Rabit" and "Tanner's Pass" was fair, skied down to the "Powder Pig" lodge and booted the rest the way back to the Silver fir parking lot -- as this last section had a lot of open streams as well as sledder and 4x4 rutted snow.

The snow conditions in and around "Grand Junction" are actually OK and I saw a number of people out enjoying themselves in that area.