Bills Peak had awesome views of the whole area, finally visible after we sat and ate lunch and BS'd and generally stalled until there was a cloud break :) Mary and Judi found us in more clouds, we gave up trying to wait for more breaks and only took short breaks as we traversed. Finally we descended from Judi via the ridge and looped back to the trailhead.

The snow was 12-24? along the ridges, with bare ground on the approach. Though we brought ice axes they were not needed; we'd also brought snowshoes but left them in the cars - it would have been nice to have another foot or two of snow for our snowshoes so we could have avoided all the post-holing in the rocks/trees! There was just enough snow for some short glissading but you had to be cautious to avoid hitting bare ground/rocks.

photos @ flickr

There were many signs posted at the trailhead about a dead horse at the creek and advising us to make a lot of noise as we approached (to scare off scavengers such as cougars and bears?), but alas we were too late and no horse was seen or smelled.

Stupid moment of the trip: As we glissade down the hill, those ahead warn us of bare ground. "Bear ground?" I think...is that like turtle grass?