Crampons / Axe needed on Marion Trail?

[zunicoop]

Any recent knowledge on the snow conditions on Marion Trail, and if crampons and ice axe are necessary? Thanks in advance.

[Rob]

zunicoop: crampons and ice axe are not necessary for Marion now. I hiked Marion on 3/26/2008 and, in the morning, on my ascent, I found some sections of trail had 1" of hard ice or packed snow that made me step slowly and cautiously to avoid slipping; however, at the end of the day, on my descent almost all of the trail ice and packed snow had melted. Trails on the lower half of Marion were damp; trails on the upper half were dry. Lots of good water flowing in every creek bed.

Little Round Valley was 50% snow and 50% dry earth and beckoned me to stay a night. I SO wanted to, but I pressed on because I didn't bring a tent (and I wanted to keep my name off rmru.org missions list).

There is a lot of logging/brush clearing going on around the trail entrance and it took me a few minutes for to figure out where the trailhead was from the Marion campground. Once going up, the trail was pretty easy to follow. It's also ducked quite a bit on the iffy sections.

Trailhead parking appears to be on the muddy shoulder of the road leading to Marion Campground, next to what might be the official trailhead, except I did not see any traditional signage and warnings board. The official trail is roped off by a yellow police tape that says, "Trail closed for logging operations." I took the official trail past the tape on the way up; however, when I returned to the trailhead area in the evening, it was too dark to discern which pile of wood chips next to which logging road marked the official trail, so when I entered the logging zone, I zigged over 200 yards to the paved campground road for the final quarter mile of my hike. This could work in reverse for hikers heading UP and wishing to avoid the logging area: from trailhead parking, hike the paved road to the end of the Marion Campground loop, then zig to the right, up a service road until you see Marion Trail signs.

[Rick M]

[Dwight]

Hello fellow hiker,
You should be really careful, A friend of mine just came from there this morning and found a group of guys traped in a avalanche. Bears ate one of them, Look man if you guys go up that trail make sure you wear tight spandex pants leg warmers and a football jersey but cut of so your belly button is showing and a baseball helmet(Dodgers). This way if the Bear sees you I would just laugh and let you and your group go. make sure you take a weapon, weapon of choice should be a broom stick with an axe taped with duct tape, Just incase you come across a rattle snake. The way you should use it is when you spot the rattle snake make sure you make eye contact then you scream loud the you strike it, make sure as you strike jump high and shout loud with the axe above your head and bring it down fast like your life depended on it. Just follow the instructions and you wll be the hero.

[AlanK]

How many guys were there? I mean, if there were, say, six guys and the bears only ate one of them, the odds of survival are pretty good -- about par for that trail.

[FIGHT ON]

shame on you allan.

[AlanK]

shame on you allan.

Was I not supposed to mention the bears? I think Dwight let 'em out of the bag.

[FIGHT ON]

shame on you allan.

Was I not supposed to mention the bears? I think Dwight let 'em out of the bag.

AlanK, you know better than to do that stuff. What has come over you? So unlike you. Wait a minute, I know what it is, it's that caffeine that you put in your body after your last hike! It's poison I tell ya, POISON!