This hike is normally 12.5 miles total, with over 4000’ of elevation gain, but we ended up shortening it to about 10 miles. With a deteriorating weather forecast, the expected number of participants dwindled rapidly, but we still had 4 hearty souls who showed up. Rain and thunderstorms were predicted for the PM, so we spotted a car at Couching Lion Farm, and then shuttled to the Bamforth Ridge trail head. We started up in a very light rain. This soon stopped, and we had clear weather for most of the trip up, which took a little over 4 hours.

From the top, it seemed that the storms were coming, so we opted to go down Monroe. About half-way down, the rain and lightning arrived, but we were in the woods, and safe – just a bit wet. As we got to the bottom, the rain ended. Given the bad weather for the day, we managed to get in an appropriate hike.

Participants – Ben Gordeski, Marie Badger, Anneliese Koenig, Richard Larsen