This was the last of my required winter peaks for the 3500.  This time I went up from McKinley Hollow, like I did a month or two earlier for Eagle.  The trail was a mix, but mostly soft, slushy snow.  By the time I got to the ridge trail, I was slipping more than not even with microspikes, and my feet were wet from the mashed potato snow/slush I was hiking in.  I put on the shoes and hiked off to the peak, and the viewpoint after the peak.  This, as agreed to by the only other pair of hikers using shoes, felt like breaking trail.  It was just bad conditions for

Today, we did Balsam Mountain.  It was another humid day, but the mountain was mostly leafed out and it was a rather shady trail up.  Overall, it was a lovely hike and the trail was in pretty good shape.  There were a couple muddy spots and a couple blow downs on the trail, but that's par for the course.  The view of the day was about 1/2 mile before the top, and what a lovely view of the valley it was.  Bugs thankfully were not that bad.  A little bit of swarming on the way up, but once spray was re-applied at the overlook, it wasn't a problem on the way down.