We'd tried twice in winter. With skis and without. That would be a no, and a no.

The truth is we went into this little walk in the woods as a final recon for another cold-weather outing. What we found was that... well, I think we're just happy to have been there, done that.

We met in Albany, ate dinner, drove to the Loj. You know the drill by now.

Early-ish breakfast (no little red-haired girl) of sorts, arrived at the trailhead at 8am.