Lion’s Gultch trail, Homestead Meadows
I have hiked into the Homestead Meadows a few times, usually by the Lion’s Gultch trail. This past Monday, Conor and I chose to hike in from the Northern side following a short trail and the dirt access roads to the homesteads. On paper, this appeared to be an easier and more direct route. In fact, we were considering this a bike route for when the snow melts off. In reality, it proved to still be a 3.5 mile hike and it was still uphill the majority of the way.
Once again, Conor and I get to our trail head and quickly find out that we are not fully prepared for this hike. The snow on the ground, once in the trees, was knee deep. The wind, once out f the trees, would bite right though the 3 layers of top-clothing I was wearing. We started our hike with all layers and even a pair of light gloves, but after the first 1/2 mile we were stripping layers off. By the time we reached the 1-mile mark we were down to just a single T-shirt, no matter that it was probably not over 40 degrees.
The great thing about attacking from the north is that we were able to get to those homesteads we had not yet ventured too. Brown and Irvin homesteads were clearly not as often traveled and because of that, the structures were more intact than the more ‘main-stream’ homesteads on this trail. Unfortunately, the trail to Irvin homestead was 3/4 mile of knee deep snow, and by the time we got there our lower half was soaked. We were only able to stay a brief period before having to get back to the truck to pickup Timmy in time, but we both agreed we should come back out for a nights stay in a few months so we can hang around and inspect all the nooks-n-crannies around these sights.
Again, Conor makes me push my boundaries, with another 7+ mile hike round trip. I was very sore after, but more due to the snow than anything else. It forces you to walk very differently… I’m going to do a little snow-shoe shopping online this summer. Hopefully I will catch a good deal and be better prepared for next winter.
