The trail to the warming hut at Red Heather meadows is about 5km through the forest along a gentle road. It's not a steep climb but it is a long walk when you're carrying a snowboard and wearing a pack. Luckily for me, Irish was kind enough to carry my board so the hike wasn't as strenuous. Even without having to carry my board, I was still soaked from sweat by the time we reached the top about and an hour and a half later.
We went inside the warming hut and peeled off some layers. Irish brought some tea, coffee, and peanut butter biscuits. It wasn't too busy with people, about ten of us were out enjoying the mostly dry weather with the occasional sunny blue sky break. After a nice half hour break, we strapped on our snowboards and headed back down the trail we originally ascended.
There wasn't much snow, I'd say about six inches on average, give or take a few inches depending on the tree cover. It wasn't enough to cover all the rocks that lay on the trail. There were a few spots where we had to walk. I never even strapped in my back foot. I rode the entire trail with only one foot in the binding. We fell a few times as rocks tend to stop you quickly when you're on a board. I don't think we were moving much faster on the boards than when we were walking. That didn't matter. We were snowboarding for the first time in seven months and we were having a blast. I think it took us about an hour to get back to the parking lot where we high-fived and called it a great first day of the 2012/2013 snow season.
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