Paddy Go Easy Pass

I thought the short
hiking season would prevent my wife and I from accomplishing one of the hikes we planned earlier in the year. A fantastic weather report early in the week from Washington Online Weather and a quick call to the Cle Elum Ranger Station and we were off to Paddy-Go-Easy Pass. Exactly 12 miles from Salmon la Sac on road 4330 is the trailhead. As our car crunched through the frozen potholes our anticipation grew for snow, sun, and fantastic views. We left the trail head at 9:30am. The temperature quickly rose from below freezing to a comfortable 50 degrees or so as we climbed in elevation. Paddy-Go-Easy Pass is a short steep climb and the trail is heavily rutted in many places. At 5,000 feet there was still no sign of snow. At about 5,500 feet snow started to cover the trail here and there. By 5,700 feet the snow was several inches to several feet deep but there were still a few patches of bare trail to aid our way. At the pass the snow was three to four plus feet deep. We decided to climb an additional 300 feet to a small peak just South of the pass. The views to Cathedral Rock and Mount Daniel, the Cradle, Cashmere and Eightmile Mountain were fantastic. We spent about an hour on our little peak soaking up the views and eating lunch. We started down at 2:00pm and except for one other couple had the entire hike to ourselves. We will probably have to wait until spring to get another day like this.