A guy at the trailhead outside Nederland talked me out of a route and he was right
I was about to head up to Lost Lake last weekend when he pointed at my 55 liter pack and asked if I was staying the night, then said the creek crossing at mile 4 was still thigh deep from snowmelt. He pulled out his phone, showed me a photo from two days earlier, and I rerouted to Diamond Lake instead. Anyone got a good low elevation loop near there for early June, since I'm clearly bad at judging conditions from a parking lot?
Ever try checking recent trip reports on AllTrails before you leave the house? I got burned the same way last spring, so now I screenshot conditions and it saves me a wasted drive.
Last month I started pulling up the trail-specific reviews on AllTrails and sorting by newest, which showed me a washed-out bridge at Eagle Creek that the main page never mentioned. That one check saved me about 40 minutes of driving each way for nothing. Screenshots are smart too since service drops once you're out there.