Gardner Road ski adventures

For some time now, the pack has wanted to get out to Gardner Rd and do some crust skiing to the Ontonagon River. Saturday morning was possibly our last chance!

Hey! Can we camp tonight?

Under the pines, there was lotsa tree debris on the snow.

Almost enough to take the skis off and walk.

Tank creek is up, but not at flood stage.

Oh dear, maybe we'll need to find a way around this wet spot.

The 2-leggeds found skiing quite good and us mutts didn't
fall thought the crust very often.

Why does the snow turn this brown color over creeks and water?
Tannin?

Trail mutts like us just don't get out for adventures very often.

We found many trees had fallen over the trail this winter.

Ha!  This is Spring Creek.
Hard to believe that we've had deep
water troubles crossing here many times in the past.

Now we descend the big hill into the Ontonagon River gorge.

This sees more sun and some spots don't have much snow left.

We made it!

Me and Wally promptly checked the bridge out.

We think the snow is packed from people or animals using the bridge.

Us mutts were perfectly willing to continue west.  Why did we stop?

We sat on the steps and ate lunch here.

It's now in the afternoon and the predicted rain is just starting
as a drizzle.

We turn and head back up.

Good thing we came today, the snow will be too shallow
to ski here shortly.

This is a perfect location for me to pee! But then, where isn't it?

We took a different way back, on the 2-track going
by the Pattison camp.  These are sled tracks.

Then we took the 2-track back to the NCT.
Now the drizzle turned into a light rain!

Bet you couldn't cross here tomorrow.

Zoom! We glide towards Tank Creek.

Puppies start to stay on the trail when they are tired,
at the end of the day.

Although, there's always something interesting to sniff.

We made it back!
We're just a short ways from the truck and you can see the rain in
Tank creek. We had such a grand adventure here today!