Did a conditioning hike to Nesmith Point. Added a little exploration to find where the Bull Run Watershed began and to check Moffit trail.
6:40 am and the parking lot is full.
The trail starts here.
Start of the Nesmith Point trail.
The little creep at the bottom was flowing pretty good.
The easy part is done and the trail starts to climb.
Seeing low clouds I knew I would be in them soon.
The start of the down trees. There were several on route.
This was an odd pile of snow that was down at the 1000 ft. level.
Hike up into the clouds and had them around until I got over the ridge.
Bottom of a rock slide that cut across several switch backs.
Fog and mossy cliff.
Trail through the middle switch backs.
The fog hung in the trees.
Slim mold. One of the oldest life forms on the planet.
The trillium were bloom along the the trail.
No view today through the clouds.
Someone made some new trail signs.
On the backside of the ridge away from the gorge and low clouds cleared.
Cut a few limbs off this down tree to make it passable.
3400 ft. and had patches of snow still on the trail.
The tree at Nesmith Point
Good view of the clouds today.
Heading back down the road from the point.
Took the road to Moffet Creek trail but with snow and blowdown I did not follow it.
No Trespassing sign at the boundary of Bull Run.
The road looks inviting to explore but the feds have locked up a very large area of meadows, lakes, streams. forests and peak in the water shed.
End of my side trip and back down the road to the trail back.
A view down the canyon that the trail will take me down.
Now that the clouds have cleared I can see the steep cliff sides of the canyon.
An interesting flower by the side of the trail.
Last view of a cliff side of the canyon and then down on the flats.