Alt-Route for the John Krein Trail

We’ve been looking for the other end of the John Krein trail.  We found it yesterday, but both of us were not feeling great so we did not pursue it.  Instead we did the clock wise trail around Little Cat Mountain.

Today we did the loop pictured below.  It’s a wonderful hike.  Please refer to the map, see the P for parking lot?  That’s where we started.  Instead of going right, and through the cut between the two Cats, we went left on the new trail that goes around Little Cat.  It’s slightly shorter going in that direction.  See where the trail makes a 90 degree turn away from Little Cat then up onto 1st Ridge? (I put a circle around it.)

This is what the trail looks like; sort of like a drainage ditch with no signage.  Yesterday, I just happened to be looking down and spotted it.  We’ve been by there countless times and never saw it.  Plus, we spent some more time studying the map and had a better idea of where the trail had to be.




It goes steeply up the hill.



See the rock formation behind Jim?  Once you’ve walked far enough that you see that side of the boulder, it’s time to start looking for the trail up the hill.



If you come to the top of the hill without making a turn off the Around Little Cat Mountain trail, and you see this, you have gone too far.  Go back whence you came.



After a little bit the trail splits, go left and keep going up.  The keyword here is up.



It’s just lovely up there.  You can see forever.



This is a steep trail.  There is some side hill which was giving me a tiny case of the willies.  There is also a lot of loose rock and big steps.  We decided we would rather do the entire loop than go back down the way we came up.



This is the pay off for the hike.  One leaves the trail and scrambles up to the big pile of rocks on the right, and then surveys all that one sees.  Unfortunately it was really windy and neither one of us wanted to be up on that pile of rocks and be even more exposed to the wind.  Next time.



It was a good hike – Jim hiked like the Jim of yore.  The boy is back!