Update May 17, 2013: It’s been a week since I posted this and conditions have improved concerning the ice flow. It’s now passable with a modicum of care. See photo below:
May 17, 2013: The ice flow on East Highline is now passable. I was standing in the middle of the creek bed when taking this photo.
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The Highline trail is in pretty good shape except for one killer ice flow. The ice flow is in the Ship’s Prow creek drainage which intersects the Highline east, and is located about 100 metres above the East Connector.
Biker on Highline trail
It’s difficult to cross because you can’t walk on either side of it due to a steep canyon wall on one side and impassable tree debris on the other. Walking or biking across the ice is sketchy because it’s on a slope. I skirted the ice-flow by taking a little-used trail which takes you off the main trail for about 400 metres.
Hikers on Highline east connector
Overall, there are occasional patches of ice and snow and a bit of mud, but of little consequence. You won’t do much damage by biking it. I took a short detour at Three Sisters creek and checked out the old Quarry. A little further upstream is the waterfall, but there’s still lots of snow on the last 100 metres of the trail. I noticed that you can no longer descend to the base of the waterfall because a significant section of the bank has crumbled away. It’s more like a cliff now. You could probably get down(with some difficulty), but you’d be stuck there forever because it would be impossible to climb back up.
Ice flow on Highline east
The water is flowing in all the drainages – the previously mentioned Ship’s Prow creek, Stones Canyon creek which becomes a spectacular hidden waterfall, and an unnamed drainage which only flows for a couple weeks. All are easy to cross on foot or on bike, except for the Ship’s Prow creek ice flow.
The secret waterfall on Stones Canyon creek near the Highline trail’s west connector
You can avoid the ice flow by doing a loop in the middle portion of the trail. Start at Quarry Lake, go east under the power line to the Peaks of Grassi trailhead(1.7K), ascend the east connector(1.4K), turn west at the forks and go across the top to the west connector(2.0K), descend back to Quarry Lake(1.7K).
It’s great to see spring time spreading its wings over the Rockies.
I recall one year when I was chomping at the bit to get out and walk (instead of ski, heaven forbid !), and wound up on the Grassi Lakes trail before the ice was out – https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rYNLONuhDOFT38jpb8R-pNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink
Bob,
Will you be putting up a tab for each month (like the winter trip tab ) for hiking trip reports throughout the summer?
Lots of skiers/snowshoers switch to hiking in the summer months and it would be nice to see reports from the horses mouth, so to speak.
There are lots of hiking websites on the ‘net which have numerous and detailed trip reports, much better than what this one contains. I only post a few hiking trips on here to stay in practice over the summer, otherwise October would come and I would forget how to run this blog. -Bob