Midnights to mountains! Solo. After leaving work at 0700, I drove straight up to the trailhead to start this hike. The gate for Dacy Clearing was open, but with snow falling & my being unsure of how much would actually come, I didn’t chance it. It’s a good thing I’m not a brave driver, as a mile into my road walk there was a large downed tree across the road, and a quarter mile after that, another one. I made quick work of the road walk, and was excited to see that the last visitor had been going to this mountain as well. Less trail breaking! I scooted along the trail on snowshoes, precariously tottering over quite a bit of ice but too lazy to switch to spikes. There wasn’t a whole lot of “climbing” to be done. The trail was mostly flat and uneventful. Very peaceful with the new snow as well as the falling snow around me. The trees were all freshly covered and beautiful, and it was absolutely silent other than an airplane passing over once. When I got to Bumps Pond I was rewarded with a nice look at the pond and then headed onto the Erebus trail proper. Turns out, the person who’s tracks I had hoped to be in had turned around about ten feet after the junction. Soon after, I was ankle deep in water. This trail is apparently a creek- the new snow covering large LARGE portions of icy trail.. just enough ice thickness to hold ~150 pounds for oh, about half a second before giving way to water. I cussed and struggled my way along the creaking trail, breaking through more times than I can count. Then of course going to the nearest tree, kicking my snowshoes against the tree to free up the giant snowballs on then, while having all the snow from the tree fall down on me. Hahaha. I took a nasty spill on an icy slope but escaped uninjured, thankfully. This trail is apparently only ever used by coyotes, and I can see why- it’s very anti climactic. Unless you’re going for the 12ster list, I see no reason someone would venture out here as a mountain hiker. I reached the accepted current high point of the trail as outlined on the challenges website, checked in with my brother, and made my way back the same way I came in, not opting for the longer mileage of a loop as I knew I was going to be awake for near 24 hours by the time I got home. All told, nice to get out and stretch my legs on my snowshoes and enjoy some peace and quiet in the forest, but definitely not a “summit” I’ll be tagging again.