Hiked Lower WolfJaw today.  I know that it was hiked and broken out on Saturday, but we have had snow since, and nobody had been on the trail since the snow.  Bare booted on Lake Road and once I crossed the bridge heading over to the Canyon Bridge and West River trail, I saw a lone set of footprints that stopped just past that first bridge.  So, I threw on the snowshoes, and they stayed on until I reached the gate on the way out.

Down low, that crossover trail is reasonably thick, snowshoes are a good choice.  The west river trail is thin in some spots, but reasonable depth in others.  It was passable in snowshoes, but I could understand someone going in spikes, and someone had by the time I came out.  Wedge Brook trail was not bad, I was mostly able to see what was packed down over the weekend.  Somewhere between the campsite (about 3000 feet) and WolfJaw notch, the snow changed.  Below that, it was light and fluffy.  Above that (and we're talking afternoon now) it had turned to mashed potatoes.  While it was only a couple inches of fresh stuff, it still was not pleasant to go through.

I went up the lefthand trail to the notch, and then went the remaining 0.3/0.4 up Lower.  It was difficult to say the least.  There are only a handful of rocks that were icy and difficult to get over.  In that first 0.1, I hit a blowdown and went left when I should have gone right.  With the typical high peaks trail marking, I made the best choice I could at that time.  I did see a glove on one of the trees in this section, but I didn't grab it because I came down the other crossover? (or is that really the wedge brook and the trail I took up was the cossover even though it didn't change colors?)

After what felt like forever, I finally made it to the top and saw that they replaced the signage since I was last there (summer 2020).  I also got to see that breathtaking view that I missed the last time I was there.

Coming down, I got to the first trail junction, turned left, and broke that out (so much easier downhill).  There was a lot of glissand, skiing, and butt slides until I hit the campsite.  From there it was a relatively easy hike out, and the snow, it was still light and fluffy from at least the campsite down to lake road.

I was following animal tracks most of the day.  It was deer on the first crossover, then I think it changed to a fox on the west river, and as I was going up I saw more that looked like fox, and others that looked like they could be a martin.  The higher I got, I saw something that looked odd before I realized that it was rabbit!  And by the time I was on the White trail going up that last climb, I'm pretty sure that it was a fisher I was following, if not, it was a canine of some kind.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any animals other than birds and squirrels.  I did see one other hiker, just as I was about to turn off the white trail and head down.

This has been one of those nemesis peaks for me.  I tried to do it in college as a sunrise hike, but we slept in.  I did it in 2020, but got no view.  I did a lower great range last winter, but we rightfully went down instead of going up Lower once we were down Upper.  I tried the previous weekend, and I felt sick.  So that makes me successful on this peak 2/5 times.