La Barge Creek (L) Trail

The La Barge Creek or L Trail begins at the La Barge Creek Parking Area 12 miles northwest of La Barge. It goes northwest along the La Barge Creek Road for 16 miles to its intersection with the H Trail at Coyote Park Creek.

Avalanche Hazards: The primary avalanche hazard to this trail is a known avalanche path located in very steep terrain on the southwest side of the trail between the Miller Creek and Cabin Creek Drainages. A large event in this active avalanche path could run across the trail. It is located 4.6 miles northwest of the trailhead and 11.3 miles southeast of the H Trail Junction. Avalanches on this path originate from a very steep northeast facing starting zone at an elevation of about 7,800 feet. About 0.2 miles northwest of this paths intersection with the trail is a very steep rocky slope on the northeast side of the trail. The long steep hillside faces southwest and is not always snow covered. If sufficient snow accumulated on this slope under unstable conditions there is some potential for an avalanche to impact the trail from this slope.

Another avalanche path has potential to impact the trail during unstable conditions from a steep open slope on the west side of the trail between the Indian Creek and Shafer Creek Drainages. This path is located 12.5 miles from the parking area and 3.4 miles form the H Trail Junction. A large avalanche on this east to northeast facing open slope has potential to reach the trail. The run out zone of this avalanche path can be avoided by traveling off the trail to the east in flatter terrain well away from this slope.

This trial goes along the base of a steep southwest-facing hillside one to two miles northwest of the parking area (13 to 14 miles from the H Trail Junction). If sufficient snow depths accumulated on this hillside there is some potential for snow slides to run to the trail in this area during unstable conditions.