They finally opened the Hatcher Pass Road to mile 14, which is right at the Gold Mint Trail parking lot. I could see huge piles of avalanche debris where it had crossed the road causing the closure. Apparently there are many more larger piles of snow along the upper portions of the road. I decided to drive up and see how Gold Mint Trail looks after being closed all winter. I found it quite nice for walking. It has a narrow foot packed path that is hard packed enough to not require snowshoes. Skis would have probably worked as well but would be better on the untracked soft snow off the narrow trail. I used my micro spikes but they really weren't needed. I do find that on hard packed snow, they make things less slippery, especially when my dog decides it's time to sprint back to the car. She can pull me right off my feet if I'm not careful.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the weather fairly nice up there. Down in the valley it was very cloudy and not possible to see any of the mountains. But on the trail there were nice spots of blue sky with sunny peaks showing in between fluffy white cumulus clouds. At times the view was quite dramatic with sun-soaked white peaks peeking through the clouds. It was calm and quite warm. I barely needed my coat. Baby was willing to walk the whole way and even led instead of reluctantly following along behind me on her leash. She had a couple of boisterous conversations with other dogs we passed along the way. But for the most part, we were alone on the trail. You could hear rushing water through occasional large openings in the deep snow where the river flowed beneath us. It was only a short 3 mile walk, but it was lovely.
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