This was trek #5 of 12 on routes I created for a 2023 Snowshoe Challenge; an attempt to snowshoe all the trails in Golden Gate Canyon State Park.

Conditions to start on a Friday morning at roughly 10:00 were fantastic. We had a few inches of snow on an already packed trail and snow was beginning to fall again.

Temps as my wife and I headed up Horseshoe were 18 degrees; perfect for a snowshoe. We had one set of snowshoe tracks for maybe the first 3/4 mile and then we had fresh snow.

We made our way to Black Bear and all was good. Easy shoeing, cold temps and snow globe flakes falling all around us.

As we gained the ridge after being on Black Bear I began to see where our challenges would lie. The trail heads along the spine of the ridge and then crosses over the ridge coming southeast. Had it not been for good signage this would have been very difficult. Due to a good amount of new snow it was possible to snowshoe the route. However, I won’t be doing it again. It would be much better if there was a solid foot of new snow, but then route finding would be more challenging.

This route is weather challenged anyway due to the southern exposure, but we were able to get through today. I had my wife take her snowshoes off once for safety sake up crossing the ridge.

In the end it was longer than I had routed and while it was challenging, it was more annoying than hard. The elevation gain is not the problem, it is the rocky outcropping and lack of good tread for the snowshoes.

All that being said, I’m glad I checked it off! I’ll be curious if this is the hardest trek of the twelve routes I have created. I’ll need to do a little e-research of the Mule Deer trail coming from Blue Grouse.

A final remark and quote from my wife. “If I had never snowshoed and this was my first time out, I’d never want to go again.” That may sum up this report better than anything!