On the weekend of 4-5 April, Ben Roth, Adele Aldrich, Janet Smith, and  I flagged a proposed ski trail through what I call the "potholes" (north of Route 130 in Sections 11, 12, and 13, T16N R79W).  A rough description of the route, marked with blue flagging, is as follows.

Start near Green Rock parking area, several yards north of the "Road Closed" sign east of the outhouse.  You'll see the blue flagging soon after you enter the trees. Head in a net northerly direction, switchbacking upward and crossing through some meadows with fine views to the south. At a point NE of the point marked "10075" on the Centennial Quadrangle, near an old fence corner, enter the trees and follow the flagging roughly NW. Eventually you'll start following a moraine that trends NW and has some interesting aspens and limber pines to break up the lodgepole-pissfir mix. After almost two miles from Green Rock, the flagging leads in a more westerly direction, eventually reaching a large meadow in NW 1/4 of SE 1/4, Section 11.  At the top of the meadow you'll be overlooking the power line NE of the Open Air Chapel near Little Brooklyn Lake.  Here you'll find another stand of limber pines and more excellent views to the south. We stopped flagging at this overlook.

If you've ever skied the North Fork Trail or wished for a quiet, exhaust-free way to Brooklyn Lake, I think you'll agree that this route would make a valuable ski trail.  From where we stopped flagging you can aim due north through easy glades to intersect the North Fork Trail, or you can continue north to the windswept meadows east of Brooklyn Lake. Eventually, I'd like to claim both of these possible continuations for skiers.

I'll ask Vern Bentley to ski the route, hoping that he'll agree to have it marked with diamonds and, ultimately, trimmed for ski travel.  In the meanwhile, I hope some of you will try it out.  For now there will be a little tree-bashing here and there, but in my opinion it's a fun, efficient route through some of the prettiest old-growth forest in this part of the range.  If all goes well, maybe we can work on the trail this coming summer and fall.

5 April 1998, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm.  Served a duty day with the Snowy Range Ski Patrol.  Carried a Forest Service radio. (Afterward, went up to Green Rock parking area with Janet Smith and Adele Aldrich to finish flagging the route established on 4 April. We finished about 6:00 pm.)