DIRECTIONS: Drive west on Hwy #1, take exit #22 into Mountain Hwy. Drive north to its very end where there is no-exit sign.create
SUMMARY: 6Km of this trail is on a paved road. It is best to cycle this section. There are also many mountain biking routes in the area. Different options are possible if you are comfortable with difficult routes as they all appeared to be black.
This will be really a nice trip if it was done by a combination of cycling, hiking, and perhaps snowshoeing. There is 6Km of walk on a paved road. It is quite long and I even thought to return back home and get my bike.
It was the first time to me to be in this area. I was surprised by the number of people that I saw in the beginning but seemed most people hang by the trailhead. There were also many mountain biking routes but few bikers. Perhaps because all the routes were black routes at least this is what I saw.
I headed first to Gillman's viewpoint. It is quite treed and it is not really worth it to walk all that distance just for it. If you are biking, I think it will be a good change. I thought there should be trail that continues to Fromme from the topography of the area but there was no trace of a trail . I bushwacked on the ridge for 1Km and hit the proper trail. The proper trail is well marked by numerous pink ribbons. It seemed that there was quite recent traffic but I didn't see anyone.
I turned back about 1/2 Km from the summit at 2:40pm as I had an appointment at 6pm and was running late. Otherwise everything looked ok.
On the way back, I followed the proper trail. It was longer and slippery. The trailhead from the road is not obvious. I also on the way back I followed a black-diamond biking trail as a short cut. It saved me some distance but it twists a lot and it was harder to follow especially when it was fairly dark.
On the way back, It was enough to walk under the moon light. I got back to the car at 5:20pm.
Snow condition was good. It was cold and the snow was hard. I didn't even need snowshoes when I was bushwacking. 2-3 postholes and that was it. Part of the road and the trail was icy and some areas were really icy. I didn't use snowshoes.