Wilson River Trail from Jones Creek, Feb 24th

I was itching to get out even though there wasn’t a lot of snow up in the mountains and the weather wasn’t playing very nice. Looking at my past hikes, I decided to re-visit the Wilson River trail and potentially head up to Kings Mountain from Jones Creek. As I drove there, I went from clear skies to cloud cover to rain and back to cloudy. Just as I parked at the trailhead, some rays of sun where coming thru so I got hopeful that I was going to be able to make it to Kings Mountain via Coronary Ridge. That disappeared pretty quickly when I started walking on snow on my way to Diamond Mill, just minutes from the trailhead. I was wearing my normal hiking shoes and knew my feet would get wet. The question was more about how long it was going to take for them to get cold. Looking at the sky, I saw grey clouds rolling in fast and it looked like it was going to let go at any point. Since I’d driven there and was already on the trail, I opted for at least getting to Diamond Mill to take a couple of pictures from the bridge. Just as I was getting there, rain started, and I had to put on rain gear and cover my pack. I got to the bridge, took a couple of pictures and then was about to start heading back when another ray of light pierced thru the sky and illuminated the bridge.

I stood there feeling the warmth and saw as the sky cleared up a bit. It felt like it was tempting me to go further. It worked as I decided right then to continue. While traversing the forest the sky light up in blue but as I gained elevation the snow got deeper. It got impossible to hike and keep the shoes somewhat dry. It was now a matter of time until my feet got cold, but I was still trusting my wool socks. At one turn I though I was close to the fork that goes up Coronary ridge but soon I found I was off by a couple of miles. By then, the snow was about 8 inches deep and getting deeper by the step. The problem in this kind of situations, when you need to make a call and turn around to head back, is that you always want to get somewhere to turn around. Turning around mid-trail seems to make sense, like leaving something incomplete. I was looking for a view or an opening, something that would work well as a turning point. Then the trees thinned out a bit, the snow got much deeper to the point of making it difficult to see the trail and the views opened to the valley. I had found my turning point. There was a small rock outcropping with amazing views of the Lester Creek valley below me and the mountain range due south.

The clouds had come back and were menacing, and my feet were cold. It was time for one or two pictures and march my way back to the car. AS I did, the weather change again. So far, I had gone thru sun, clouds and rain. The only remaining, that I got on my way down, was hail. Yes, the weather was definitely not playing nice.

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