Contributed by trip leader Dennis Krakow

The Swampy figure 8 became more of a barbell shape. With just 4 of us, we passed on breaking trail up Butte Trail and Flagline Tie.  We did bust trail up Ridge Loop, where we saw how well last summer's limb trimming worked to prevent or reduce tree wells.  Very good, indeed.  A good day, but 4 hours due to so much trail breaking.
33 degrees at the start and 30 at the end.  We could literally feel the snow thickening as the tour went on and were happy that our hard work was early in the trip.