The turnout for this early season, snowy run was overwhelming. Several new and new-to-me members joined in the run, which ultimately had 11 FR 4x4 vehicles and one guest.
I arrived at the trailhead around 9:30, and found Dean (red JKU not sure if it was an R) and Jessie (sp?) already waiting anxious to leave. Other folks filed in, with everyone arriving by ~10:15. By my count, all of the "yes" RSVPs and all of the "maybes" attended. Notably, dbtrooper and antpile both ran on new-to-them vehicles, with dbtrooper still sporting temporary license plates.
The first half of the trail was in good condition and mostly dry. We stopped at the clearing after the long rocky climb to let some other trail users pass, as the trail was quite congested today and we expected to be turned back by snow anyway. After a lengthy break at this clearing, the group proceeded on and ended up split. The lead group passed the cabin and quickly found their way blocked by multiple stuck vehicles in deep snow. The tail half of the group waited at the top of the short climb out of the clearing (downhill of the cabin), where we picked up FR4x4 member Evan, who was out on his own when he came upon our stopped group.
After some time the stuck vehicles were cleared and we re-grouped uphill of the cabin to have lunch and watch Jim and Gerald attempt a bit of snow bashing. Jim brought chains, and Gerald has a beefy LJ on 40" with long-arm suspension, so we figured if they couldn't make progress, the rest of us would have no hope. Despite the chains, Jim was stopped just past where all prior vehicles had become stuck. The snow was easily over 4 feet deep, crusted and icy. Without a recovery vehicle and winch to help, Jim decided to turn back and we spent some time eating lunch and relaxing near the end of the trail before breaking group for the day.
The weather was fantastic for a trail run today, though we'll need a few more weeks like this to clear the southern faces of many of these trails, and even longer to clear the northern faces.