Trip Reports

three mile road hike from the graves creek road gate (just past the bridge) with no apparent reason for the closure. river looks ""full"" just before wolf bar camp. trail is snowy, with complete trail coverage after wolf bar and about a foot and a half of snow with light crust at the halfway house campground. four or five navigable blowdowns. a bull elk had broken trail for us most of the way. saw a clear cougar print - maybe it was tracking the elk? - pretty cool.

The I-90 off-ramp is plowed, but you'll have to walk an extra 1/2 mile or so to get to the trailhead (not pass-able, even with 4 wheel drive, they've piled up the snow in front of the road). The trail is pretty much snow covered the whole way, but the conditions in the gulley were perfect, and there are some pretty good steps kicked in, which makes for some a fast ascent.

Left the truck at 1pm and was back by 3:30 - only saw two other groups on the mountain (both had 3 members). I also went with a group of three, but two of us were canine.

Great, fast, fun ascent - a good afternoon climb.

When I got up Saturday morning, it was raining, so I decided to head north for better weather. I had been up to the Oyster Dome a couple of times from the west trail head on Highway 11. This time I thought coming from the east would be a good choice to see some new country. In the book, ""Winter Hikes"", it gives descriptions of hikes in the Chuckanut Mountains. The DNR has several trail heads on Blanchard Hill to pick from to start your hike. And the weather was good.

I used the Incline Trail off the B-1000 road, but went up the Incline Alt. Trail which is much less steep. The Incline Trail was built as a logging railroad incline 3/4 of a mile long in 1920, with a maximum grade of 38 percent by the Sammish Bay Logging Company to reach the timber in the shortest possible route. It was called the Lizard Lake incline. Once at the top of the incline I hiked the old railroad grade trail to the junction with the Lizard Lake Trail. There was about a foot of old snow on the ground, but it was packed down from other hikers. I hike over to the lake which has several DNR campsites and a privy.

I continued on past three other trail junctions to the end of the old railroad grade. This is where the PNT comes up from Highway 11 and where the trail to the Oyster Dome heads north. After getting up to the Dome it was time for lunch and the views out to the San Juans and the Bat Caves down below. I didn't stay to long as the wind was blowing (I think it always does up on top).

I did meet several other hikers, three horse rider and two mtn. bikers. If you would like to see a photo of the incline and learn some history of the area, check out the book, ""Logging Railroads of Skagit County"" by Dennis Thompson.

We hiked into Olympic Hot Springs and spent the night. The road is closed at the dam, but it's an easy hike. Snow starts right around Happy Lake Trail head. The trail is easy to follow with a narrow, well worn path through the snow all the way to the hot springs. The stars were spectacular on Friday night! We camped in the old parking lot, near the out-house, in about 2 feet of snow. There were two other groups of campers there that night. Saturday morning, light rain turned to big snow flakes and made our time in the hot springs memorable. We left before 12-15 day hikers arrived. They didn't look very well prepared for the conditions and long walk. I can't imagine walking all that way and back in one day just to spend a few hours soaking in the pools. Definately an overnight trip when hiking all they way from the dam.

My favorite hiking partner and I drove past the ""road closed' signs at the turn off for Hwy 123 north at the Hwy 12 jct. The drive up was'nt too bad until the last mile or so. Then you better have a 4x4 or you'll be parking in the middle of the road like this Honda from Oregon did !@#/#!!!!.... We went through the forest on the way up and visited the hot springs( cool stuff) and met our first obstacle at the Laughingwater creek bridge. The snow is piled high but crossable. When we reached Silver Falls the view was just incredable. The bridge was passable even with a fallen tree across it. The next two bridges were too dangerous to cross because of fallen trees and snow pack. We found safer ways of crossing. When finally reaching the bridge to the Patriarchs I was lucky enough to see the back end of a Bobcat go up the trail. Crossing the bridge here also was not the easiest. The snow was packed above the hand rails and very dangerous. After a tour of the giant trees we forded the stream to the east and climbed to the the Hwy. and made our way back to the car. All in all a very nice trip!

Low Mt is to the NE of Granite. It's summit comes in at 5,400' but it is identified as Low Mt on the Snoqualmie Pass USGS quad. Take the Denny Creek route to the bridge over Denny Creek. The route in is hard packed snow in a trench so I didn't even put snowshoes on until reaching the creek. At the bridge, elevation ~2,600 feet go directly west through forest until reaching a broad open area. The snow had consolidated and with a firm crust the avalanche slope to the north here did not present a risk. We originally had planned to hike up to Denny Lake and then follow the ridge NNE and then NNW to the summit. With the firm snow we cut across the slope to a forested slope and then gained the ridge at about 4,800'. The ridge is followed past two false summits until reacing the true summit at the furthest NW point of Low Mt. On the USGS map it is right next to the ""w"" of the word Low. It was quite windy on top and the ridge had sculpted snow through various layers which reminded me of sandstone worn by the wind in the Southwestern states. We had great views to The Tooth, Bryant, Chair, and Kaleetan. Our descent route was simply to descend to the Denny Creek trail on the east connecting with it at Snowshoe Falls. This route is great for going downhill as the snow is powdery but would be too difficult as an ascent route unless done later in season. We left our car at 7:45AM and summited at 12:00. Back to Mercer Island park-and-ride by 3:00PM.

Left FSRD 73 at 8:00AM saluted good bye to fellow Don Larkin club member Jas. The sun was just coming up for a very un-washington day. Followed the tracks of some Forest Service sub-contracter with "" gate key "" privilages. Made Huckleberry Creek Brg 3160' with out straping on the shoes rounded the switch back and started up in t-shirt and sunglasses. Came upon our faithful goverment employees on sleds returning to the trailhead after acouple of days following carnovor tracts for the Park Service. No cats but many fox, ermin and other small weazel. Said go bye to the last folks Id see or talk to for the next few days. Enjoyed the next couple of miles and several thousand vertical in sun and sticky snow. Made camp one at Elanor. Slept well under clear cold stary night. Morning was another clear sunnyday, hooked up the sledge and headed up the un-tract snow of the protected old-growth of Mt. Rainier. Made Grand Park by early afternoon. Made base camp under the massive presence of the mountain. Spend the next couple of days in side trips to Cold Basin, Berkley Park, Sky Scraper and Scarface peaks. Woke on Prez. Day to the bright orange, pink and red of sunrise on Rainier and Freemont. Felt sorry for my friend drinking thier coffee under the blanket of clouds that lay out like a worn carpet to the west and north. Packed up the sled with the speed of a man not wanting to leave my home of Sub Alipine Fir. Made Huckleberry Creek for the night. Out the next day in more customary downpour and 36 degree, Washington weather. Caught a ride and headed for hamburgers and crowds.

Made for an early start on Valentines day to try and summit the NE Buttress route of Chair Peak out in Snoqualmie Pass. Left the trailhead at around 7am and reached Source Lake quite quickly on the Upper Alpental parking lot route. Good snow, with some other snowshoe tracks that kept us on the right path to get in the basin right below Chair Peak. Once we were near the base of the East Face, we headed right just after the ""Thumbtack"" and up a steep pass that gains the ridge that runs to the base of Chair Peaks NE Buttress. There was a large soft Bergscrund that halted us at first, so we went to check out the North Face and it was the same thing. 60-70 degree snow and ice that was pretty thin, along with the sparce areas to place pro.

I called it above my head, with lack of experience of my new ice tools, so we headed back down the trail in search of waterfall ice and found some not too far out of the basin.

It was an incredibly beatifully day with blue skies and spring like conditions in the upper basin (short sleeve t-shirt). Images and more to be posted at www.nwog.org in the next few days. Thanks scott@nwog.org

The Hurricane ridge road was closed, so I decided to try Lk. Angeles. No snow on the lower part of the trail, so I strapped the snowshoes on my pack, and headed up. There is a lot of ice on the lower part of the trail ( first 1.5~2 miles)then packed snow. No views at all until you get to the lake. Then a good clear view on 3 sides of the surrounding hills. My snowshoes enjoyed the trip, since they got a free ride up and back on my pack. VERY icy on the way down, it actually took longer than the trip up. Bring some sort of small crampon or cleat if you want to beat yourself up on this one, otherwise, save it for summer. 2000ft elevation gain.

The main parking lot is still blocked by snow, but there is some parking available on the side of the road. Even though the trail is covered in snow, the first mile and a half is fairly easy going. The snow is packed down, and aside from icy spots, traction isn't a huge problem. That all changes at about the 2-mile mark when you reach the exposed hillside. The snow is pretty deep and snowshoes are almost a requirement.

We hiked up to Camp Muir on the 12th, which was a beautiful day. Snowshoes were not necessary on the wind-packed slopes. We slept in the public shelter, making use of the attached shovel to get into the door. On the morning of the 13th, we started up the mountain in high winds. We climbed the Ingraham Direct route since snow conditions seemed quite good. But all the way up we were continually hammered by fast moving clouds of spindrift, and as the hours went by the wind increased, blowing us over sometimes! We reached a rocky slope below the crater rim and turned around due to cold, wind and exhaustion experienced by some team members (including me!). Steeper slopes on the way down provided difficult work in the growing blizzard. Two of us fell into small crevasses. Even the way down from Camp Muir was difficult, in a blizzard and whiteout. Now I'm home and addicted to my fireplace!

I'd take the alternate route (Mazama Ridge) to the Reflection Lakes right now rather than chance a doozy of a fall on the extremely steep slope you have to cross taking the Inspiration Pt. way. I've never seen the Stevens Canyon Rd. so full of snow that you'd never guess there was a road under it on that steep slope above the Narada Falls parking lot. I watched a lone x-c skier cross it above me & in my opinion he was very foolish. When I got up to near that spot, he had crossed a 45+ deg. slope with a couple hundred foot drop with no runout. Anyway, I proceeded up and over Mazama Ridge on snowshoes, a delightful hike thru forest & lonely midweek. After hiking around the western edge of the Reflection Lks. basin you come upon the road again & above you towers (L-R)Castle, Pinnacle & Plummer Pks. Rainier looms behind you to the north. I took a faint ski/snowshoe trail heading south up towards The Castle & after climbing a steep 1000+' topped off on a ridge to the left of The Castle, with a view looking south to Adams, Hood & St. Helens & a magnificent view to the north of Rainier & its flanks-wow! Info: elev. gain 1000+', 6mi RT,hiking time:5hrs. Note: Found an elaborate snow cave just above Reflection Lks. that hadn't been collapsed for safety after its builders left- boo.

Attempted the Worm Flows route. High winds on the upper mountain made snow wind-packed. Winds plus encroaching clouds suggested turn-around. Some in our party got within a few hundred feet of summit. We enjoyed a great blizzard from the comfort of camp.

Road had a little snow on it but easily negotiable. When we arrived on Saturday the parking lot was full of snow machine trailers - had a difficult time finding a place to park! We came out Monday and of course the place was practically empty.

On the way in we encountered plenty of day-trippers having a good ol' time. Most were going up to tree-line then back home.

The plan was to head up to Union & Jove Peaks, although we only made it to the summit of Union. We ran out of time and the weather was moving in pretty fast. It's a nice trip. We followed Smithbrook Road to the 3rd switchback in the road, where you'd normally veer off to go to Lk Valhalla. From there we headed up toward Union Gap but at about 4500' before reaching the gap we gained the ridge that is S/SE of Union Peak. Lots of deep snow there. Some of it was up to my waist. It made kicking steps up the west side of the ridge very tiring. Luckly, we had along a guy who snacks on Duracell batteries. He broke trail almost all the way up to the crest of the ridge. Once we reached the ridge crest it was pretty easy going to Union's summit. There are some pretty nice views from the summit of Union including Glacier Peak and Sloan Peak to the north, and Rainier to the south. We estimated the trip to Jove Peak would take about 2 hours. A front was also quickly moving in so we called it quits and followed out steps on the way back out. Stats are about 7 hours, 2600' gain (I'm not sure on the mileage).

Beautiful day hike/snowshoe in to Olallie Lake from the Granite Mtn trailhead. No big views since its all in trees, but very peaceful.

We used snowshoes for about the last mile into Olallie, but the trail was pretty well packed down all the way in to both Talapus and Olallie, and was probably hikeable as long as the snow stays firm. Mixed snow/mud from the trailhead until you turn off onto the Pratt Lake trial, then it's pretty much solid snow to the lakes.

The snow gets MUCH deeper (and the traffic noise disappears!) after the trail turns northward away from the highway. I would estimate there is 10' of snow depth at Olallie. WOW! No bugs! There were 2 very aggressive birds divebombing for morsels of food, but other than that very quiet at the lake.

On the way out, snow bombs falling from the trees became quite an annoyance. Luckly we did not get hit by any of the big ones we saw falling just off the trail.

We saw 8 other people on the trail. Based on the car count at the trailhead when we left, I'd say there were a few more people up towards Granite Mtn.

There is one new looking culvert just after the Pratt Lake turnoff that was plugged and the trail quickly turning into a gully. We couldn't open the plug with ski poles. This would be an easy fix with a shovel.

Mtn Loop highway totally clear of snow to Pilchuck Road. It is snow free for 1/4 mile. Necessary to have high clearance vehicle to gain passage after that as there are huge potholes and the ruts get real deep. I told myself to never come up the Pilchuck road on a weekend again, but I never learn. We were the first ones on the trail, and made good time up to the lake. Snowshoes were not necessary on the way up as it is compact snow. We made a traverse around the lake (even though others walk across it, not worth it to me since the lake is only at 2500') and had lunch on the far end and watched avalanches. Watched a solo climber gain the ridge towards Lake 22. On the descent we saw at least 25 hikers on their way up. Once at the parking lot there were several locals trying to get their 1 ton trucks unstuck since they blocked the road and delayed our departure for quite awhile. If you want to hike Heather or Pilchuck, do it on the weekday, or park on the Mtn Loop and hike up.

I'd had the Green River Gorge on my short list for winter hiking for quite a while. Today, I finally got there, and wrapped four short hikes into one day. Started at the head of the Gorge at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park. Parked the car at the middle boat launch, and strolled downstream to the head of the Gorge. The park is pleasant and quiet this time of year, and the river was sublime. The trail is in good shape to its end. A rough and narrow footpath proceeds a bit farther downstream, climbing atop one of the first of the Gorge's rock walls for a good view. Next was the undeveloped Walter A. Jellum Area. Walked the gated Plum Creek Timber Co. road to the state park property, but the park sign had been blown to smithereens with buckshot. Much bigger trees once there, though. Took both the right fork of the road-trail down to the sparkling river amidst the sandstone walls (fishermen here), and the left fork to the old miner's cabin (couldn't find it). Hanging Gardens was my third stop, after passing the redneck colony of Green River Resort. I should mention here that the primary downside to hiking this area is the proximity of a shooting range, which sounds like non-stop firecrackers in the distance. Luckily, when close to the river, the racket is drowned out. Anyhow, after fleeing the nimrod resort, with the persistent sound of bullets still accompanying me, I was feeling a little spooked going down to Hanging Gardens. This route also follows a gated road, which is a bit of a trick to locate. Hint: It's the only one without a ""no trespassing"" sign on the north side of the Franklin-Enumclaw Road. The road-trail becomes true trail after a bit, descending through pretty forest to the semi-famous rock grotto. Hanging Gardens is a definite must-see. Unfortunately, State Parks has allowed the area to get somewhat out of control. Near the river, on a flat ""campsite,"" was a big pile of trash. Graffiti laced some of the big cedars, and some moron had chopped into several of them with an axe. Venus has a butt rash at Hanging Gardens, unfortunately. I picked up some of the trash on the way out, expecting to stumble over Laura Palmer's corpse at any moment. I can't think of a more deserving place for a small group of thoughtful people to spend a day cleaning up. My final stop was at the more civilized (for better, and worse) environs of Flaming Geyser State Park, at the mouth of the Gorge. I walked the very muddy, but green and lovely, river trail to get a good look at the finale. Several rotting salmon, looking like they had spawned out a month or more ago, lined the riverbank and perfumed the air. This particular spot was more scenic than I had expected. I squished back to the car, amazed that this impressive river is the same one that enters Elliot Bay (as the Duwamish). It's worthy of a lot of love.

We tried to beat the weather by heading just east of the crest to Arrowhead Mt. Parking at the maintenance buildings, we couldn't find anyone around to ask if it was ok. So we walked east on Hwy 2 a short distance across Nason Creek, then headed to the old road and travelled east. At the end of the road we went up to the RR tracks and followed them about 1/3 mile. Then headed south uphill to the ridge at about 4100'. The snow was arduous, with the consistency of powdered sugar. But safe and fun and after a few hours we were walking the east ridge towards the summit. This goes well too. Some skiers had climbed up a route on the opposite side the previous day. But no other tracks evident the entire route, except for bunnies, chipmunks, and the occasional sasquatch. It was a pretty fun trip down on great but deep snow. After changing boots at the car and getting in, it immediately started raining. Perfect timing once again! It poured buckets on the drive to the Puget Sound area.

Wenatchee Ridge 4,050' February 09, 2002

The Wenatchee Ridge Trail begins at Lake Wenatchee at the end of Highway 207, about 12 miles from Highway 2 at Coles Corner. It is actually on Forest Road 65, but we could not tell when it changed from Highway 207 to Forest Road 65. There is a small plowed area at the end of the road, which on this beautiful day, was occupied by three snowmobile parties, two snowshoe parties and one nordic ski party.

The trail follows the now unplowed Forest Road 65 for two miles, then up Forest Road 6502 for another three miles. The snow was softer and finer on this east side of the Cascade Crest, and Doerte and I enjoyed the quiet and solitude as we gained elevation and the views got better and better. The snowshoeing was easy at first, and then became more difficult as the snow got deeper.

It was fun to look down on the increasing flowing water of the Little Wenatchee River in the Valley and up to the big panoramic views of Mount Mastiff and Mount Howard high above. We picked out many routes up the big mountains.

There were some clouds lingering on the high ridges, but overall the weather was mild and dry. We made four miles each way which didn't quite get us all the way to the endpoint on the ridge before our turnaround time of 2:00 pm.

As we came around a turn near the carpark we were shocked to come face to face with a big Bobcat on the road! It was a real beauty in it's winter coat and much larger than we had imagined they would be! We all stood and looked at each other for a while before it ran a few yards in the woods and turned around to look at us again. We have seen tracks and scat many times in the past but never a real sighting until now.

The snowmobilers were polite and it was a pleasure to talk to the nordic skiers. The nordic skiers always seem to have their egos in place. If you go, be sure to get an early start to ensure you have enough time to get all the way on to the ridge for the best views. We did 8 miles round trip and 1,600' elevation gain.

Hiked almost to the first bridge and took a side trail (don't remember name of trail) that went up the side of the Marymere trail.Came across a blow down. We were able to sqeeze underneath and continue on. The trail was fine till we got up half a mile or more and there was a little too much snow and we wern't quite prepaired for snow. When we came back down and came to the tree, there was a crew cutting it up. Thanks guys! Later we proceeded to go home and were side- tracked and lured into Elwha camp to check out the river and camp site there and saw a herd of Elk cows!! They were graising in the dark of the trees but you could see them and more seemed to keep appearing the more your eyes adjusted! Then a coyote came loping out from that direction away from the Elk and it looked like they had chased him away. He proceeded to slink across the meadow in front of us, he looked at us as he skulked past. It was quite magical!

The southern terminus of the Tiger Mountain Trail is found on Tiger Mountain Road 0.2 miles from the Issaquah-Hobart Road near its junction with SH-18. There is one log across the Tiger Mountain Trail and some muddy spots during the first 1.2 miles. There are a few logs across the South Tiger Traverse; one just north of the power line and a few at the high point of the trail. Snow patches are on the trail above 1550 feet. Snow completely covers the road portions of the trail above 1500 feet. Otter Lake is completely iced over. There is snow on the road portion of the Tiger Mountain Trail above 1500 feet and there are some incredibly muddy portions below. Snow depths were up to six inches in places. Skies were lightly overcast and temperatures were moderate to warm. A gray fox was seen around Otter Lake.

Tired of having to dodge snowmobiles in the Norse Creek Wilderness area accessed off of Hwy 410 near Greenwater, we headed toward outer Huckle-Chuck and the solitude of the Carbon River Valley within the Park for our weekly Saturday on Snowshoes.

Park folk had the road closed at the entrance station, so we enjoyed a slog in a few inches of wet snow on the gravel road surface. Thanks to tire tracks from trucks ahead of us on the road, we made the trek all the way to Ipsut Creek Campground without having to use our snowshoes. Saw only one deer as far as wildlife was concerned, but its rapid sprint along side us in the newish snow made for a nice sight. We did pause slightly to assist some Park Folks working to free the stuck ""private"" vehicle of what may have been a Park Volunteer using the advantage of a key to the gate to access the upper valley sans the wet snow slog. We left them digging after our obligatory bounce on the bumper.

We treked up to Ipsut Falls with the snowshoes (be careful on those narrow bridges or take the shoes off before crossing!)

Lunch at the falls was great as the sun poured through the trees onto the blanket of wilderness snow. Out trek back to the truck included a detour onto the sun-drenched river bed. With rising temps throughout the day, the slog down was more of a slog than the way up. Perhaps we should look into gaining ""Volunteer with Key"" status!

All in all it was a nice way to spend a peaceful Saturday without our sled driving friends intent on tracking up the wilderness knowing full well that the NFS rangers are too busy collecting parking fees to actually regulate the solitude of wilderness. Can't wait to next Saturday.....

Donald Larkin Trail Team

Snow free up to 3500' or so. Not too icy, need snowshoes once you get out of the trees, or you can hike it, but lots of postholing. Very windy from the base of the talus field on up. Eric had dug out the mailbox before we got there. Watch out for slab releases on the approach on the ridge, and it is kind of icy.

Three of us headed east as a friend had recommended Hex Mt a few weeks back.

It was snowing at Snoqualmie as we passed. There were some breaks in the clouds in the Easton area. But it was soon enough socked in again.

Parked by Newport Creek pull out - someone plows a parking area just east of the creek. The road is on the west side of the creek. You climb the road about 1,200 feet and then head off and up the ridge.

Due to deep and stiff snow conditions the road ski was pretty hard work. It was dense and deep. We had some sun breaks briefly as we started and one or two other brief shots of sun but it was snowing and blowing most of the way up.

We only made it to about 4,000 feet due to the conditions. We found a sheltered place out of the wind and snow and had lunch. As lunch ended, the sun came out and remained out. We only headed up about another 100 feet knowing that we really did not have time.

The ski down was fun but as we got lower the snow had gotten even heavier. The last half mile or so, some snowmobiles had ""damaged"" out hard set tracks.

We concluded with a beer or two and early dinner at the Brick in Roslyn (aka Northern Exposure).

A good day even without the summit.

This is a nice, easy hike along the East Fork Foss River. The first two miles are on the road leading to the summer trailhead. The road is open to motorized traffic, but on a nice Tuesday there was nobody except two cross-country skiers. No snowshoes are necessary, as I made out just fine with cleats. Good hiking boots would also have sufficed. What a change when entering the actual trail portion! It was like a tunnel into the forest primeval. There were lots of trees down, the trail is rather primitve, and there were plenty of big trees. I felt like Lewis, and I think my dog Daisy felt like Clark. We only went about three of the five miles of trail until you would then have to climb up the avalanche chute to the Necklace valley. There are lots of side trails and such off to the river on your right. This would be a great rainy-day hike, or anytime you wanted to see some good old-growth without doing a lot of vertical feet.

Steve-o and me arrived Green Lk trailhead at 10:00 AM for his first introduction to snowshoeing. I was hoping that forecasted rain for late afternoon would hold true so my partner's first outing would be as pleasant as possible. As it turned out, it rained lightly on the return trip to the car, but no damage done.

The road from park entrance to trailhead parking lot is rutted with about six-inch berm's but navigable. Four wheel drive, and or high clearance vehicle, is recommended for road to Ipsut Campground.

Trail is covered from trailhead to lake, but the shoes were not needed due to the well compacted surface from previous visitors; probably over the weekend. Bridge over Ranger Creek was being cleared of ice and snow by a Park Volunteer as we arrived at that location. After crossing bridge we did put snowshoes on so my buddy could at least get a feel for the sport. It began snowing as we approached the lake. This was a nice touch to our environment. We stopped by Ranger Falls on the return and they were flowing nicely. All in all, the entire route is in good condition. A good time was had.

JNW

A nice Sunday hike to the top of Squak from starting at the Bullit Access Trail to the Central Peak Trail, and then return via the Bullit Fireplace and Fireplace access trails.

Weather was great but there are windfalls near the Issaquah junction (about 1600 ft. elevation) on the Bullit Access Trail and also on the Central Peak Trail. These are no problem but I did have to remove my day pack twice to slide through the wind falls.

Snow on the trail just above the Issaquah junction and it increased to about 6 inches near the top. No real problems but in the snow add an extra 25 to 35 percent to normal hike time.

For my sunday hike, I decided to check out the trails along Chuckanut Drive just out of Bellingham. I found myself on a trail just out of the State Park along that road. Hiking approximately 2 miles up a logging road, through some of the greenest forest that I have seen in a while. The sounds of the puget sound below, kept the felling of an old saying, ""..where the mountains meet the sea"". The forests was full of fern and conifer trees, an ideal place to take some photos of the mist that hangs on the side of the mountains after a good rain.

The trail climbed into some small patches of snow, then fell again below the snow line just before the side trail leading to Fragrence Lake. This is a level hike around a tucked away lake. On the West side of the lake, the trail follows between the shore, and a large forested cliff that looked to be sedimentary rock exposed by the successive terrians that have collided into the American continents in the Whatcom County area. All in all this is an excellent hike for those looking to get away for a few hours into nature during the winter. There are many other trails as part of this system, and more to explore...

Jorj Aldair

Left the trailhead at about 830am, with a busy parking lot of cars and folks. The trail was rwally beaten down from Saturday, so snowshoes were not necessary, even though many other folks were wearing them out of the lot. Reached the Granite/Pratt Lake junction and continued upward. We followed the West Ridgeline this time, which I had never taken, so you go straight up in the trees to stay away from the gulches that can be dangerous with avalanche danger at certain times. Once we got out of the treeline, it got real windy. Ice was soon encounterted once we got on the ridge, with exposed rock and vegetation. Crampons would have helped us on the way up, but we decided just to get to the top and then wear them on the descent. Winds and spindrift were hitting us at 35-40mph. I was certainly glad that I had my balaclava for once! We reached the summit almost 4 hours later, then made a quick descent only to find the sun come out for a few brief moments while we had lunch at treeline. Not much glissading at all due to the wet heavy snow. Good times! scott@nwog.org

Enjoyed a rainy day hiking with pals.

The report posted on Jan 21 by D,V&M still holds true. Parking lot is covered - everyone is parking alongside the road.

The first mile has nearly as much gravel walking as snow - we called the terrain ""mixed"" ;-)

We removed snowshoes until we arrived at the open slope. Didn't really go to the lake but enjoyed picnic at top of open slope. Saw a few other parties coming down from lake - they appeared to have no substantial problems.

Sunday was a completely different weather day than Saturday-a skiff of snow on the ground with fog and low clouds that thickened as I climbed up the ridge. There are three routes up the ridge-up three fingers that rise from the Selah-Ellensburg eastward-one goes up the north finger a closed jeep road that was featured in the last WTA magazine. I chose not to go up that route because of deep snow at the bottom that lessens once the ridge is created. The route I took went up the southern finger, up a Green Dot road not getting much use right now. The road cuts off Wenas Rd to the north just before the pavement ends. If the road is not frozen or dry--or threatens to thaw during the day, I wouldn't advise driving up it, as it was I pulled off this road right at its start and walked in. The easiest route goes up the middle finger, no road and a consistent slope-not an easy one but perhaps easier than the other two. You reach it by passing either of the two aforementioned routes and going up/down the road until you find a spot where someone has made a circle of large rocks(?) along the east side of the road. Up on the ridge to the east is a small dead pine tree-that is the middle finger.

Once progressing up any of the three fingers, you top out on on Umptanum Ridge. On the south finger there was very little snow. I stopped in a grove of Ponderosas near the top, built a fire and ate my grub, waiting out the fog-which finally broke around 11 o'clock after a brief, furious snow shower. I got up to the top and walked the ridgeline to the upper end of wooded Black's Canyon, which rises from the Wenas Valley to the South then headed back, spotting a small herd of elk that I stalked, crawling the last 50 yards until I reached a spot roughly 30 yards fromt he nearest animal where I could watch them undetected until I backed out of there and left them undistrubed. On the south facing ridge as I descended, the melting snow turned the ridgeside to mud, green grasses begininng to poke through the remaining snow and in the bare spots.

AFter driving around looking aimlessly for the trailhead, we finally found it by the old town of scenic, just over the RR tracks. Make sure to take the right spur out of the small 6 car lot, as the snowplow snow barricades block the trail out of view. Our other group had already left as we were really late leaving the trailhead (10am). Real nice trail, and our group was breaking it ahead of us. As you go up the canyon beatiful peaks rise up beside you. There had been many loose debris avalanches, but it stayed way above us in the basin. We finally caught up to our team and helped them break trail. There was another group of 6 or so that was doing the same job of breaking trail (They wore FULL gore-tex on this beautiful day?) Anyway, as you follow Surpirse Creek up the basin, you have to switch over to the left side of it at about 4000 feet and continue climbing. There is only about 2300 vertical gain on this 4.3 mile hike, but we reached our turnaround time and decided to have lunch in the sun. Lots of snowbridges across the creek on the way down, and it appeared that others had fallen in the creek, so be careful. Can't wait to go back up and be ""Surprised"" by the lake! scott@nwog.org

Haney Butte 6,260' February 02, 2002

The route begins off Highway 97 on the way to Leavenworth at the Swauk Pass Sno-park. Most people still refer to this as Blewett Pass. However, Blewett Pass is the old unpaved road a few miles to the south. When the modern highway was built the pavement was rerouted over Swauk Pass. Park on the south side at elevation 4,102'. There was enough parking, although some parties park at the pullouts a little farther down the road to save the Sno-Park Pass fee.

On this beautiful Saturday, there were snowshoers, skiers, and snowboarders, most heading to Diamond Head. Two miles and 1,800' gets skiers and snowboarders to the summit and some great runs off the west side.

Doerte and I very quickly tired of the snowmobiles racing by at 40 to 50 mph, and not even raising their hand off the throttle, so we decided to avoid Diamond Head and go toward Haney Meadows instead. We took the skier only trail. The snow was light, soft, dry powder and a foot deep on the open slopes.

This trail was well marked, easy to follow, and contours around Diamond Head. At 2.5 miles it joins Tronsen Meadow, 4,500', another access from the highway. The trail begins to gain elevation; crosses two avalanche slopes, and then meets a narrow valley on the steep east side of Diamond Head. Now out of the trees, the trail ascends the valley and heads up the open slopes to the edge of a ridge. A strong party of four telemarkers with skins passed us.

We climbed the ridge another 350' on hard windblown snow to the summit of Haney Butte at about 6,260'. The four telemarkers were beginning their steep run off the summit through the powdery glades of Haney Meadows far below. We had a broad panorama of the Cascades, with occasional views of Mount Stuart and Mount Rainier. Because of the cold wind, we quickly added some layers, enjoyed a lunch, and began our descent.

We met four snowshoers and a lone backcountry skier hoping to gain the summit. As always, going down took only half the time it took to ascend. We only saw three other parties so there was lots of great solitude and backcountry. The only negative was the loud, noisy, stinky, racing, snowmobiles. 10 miles, 2,158' elevation gain, and 5.5 hours.

On clear cold Saturday morning I walked the Skyline Trail over the top of South Umptanum Ridge, down into the canyon between the North and South Umptanum Ridge, colloquially known as the Payatoo, had a fire and lunched at Walnut Springs in the Canyon, then climbed back up South Umptanum and angled across the South of the Ridge until I hooked back into the Skyline. No snow except for some shadowy spots on the north side of the South ridge. Saw a plethora of deer, a herd of elk, a covey of chukars, a few quail and a coyote. Payatoo is roadless between the roads that travel the tops of North and South Umptanum Ridges--a huge expanse of some of the last undeveloped high desert country.

The Skyline Rim trailheads can be reached by driving N. from Selah on N. Wenas Road and continuing straight on Gibson Rd about 4 miles of town then taking a right onto Buffalo Road. The first access is reached through an elk fence right after the road takes a 90 degree right turn-a dirt road takes you to the trailhead at the mouth of what I call the 'V' canyons-trail goes up the East 'V'-you can't miss it and connects with the Skyline Trail up on the Ridge. If you want to get more of the Skyline itself-continue down the dirt road--it'll take a 90 degree left turn and continues past a few homes, some dogs, and continues down to what I call the river trailhead-within site of the Yakima R.

Groomed to the junction.

From the junction to the top there was at least one foot of dense but dry snow. Mostly cloudy with some fog in the middle section and a few sunbreaks. It was fairly windy at the bald top. The deepness of the snow meant that skiers and snowshoers used the same track. On WAX skis it lead to a pretty fast descent.

One or two skiers broke most of the trail to the top. The rest of us (various separate parties) spelled each other in cleaning from the second to 10 position. The cross-over would have meant more trail breaking rather than a fast descent so most folks turned around.

The trees were almost totally flocked with snow. Not much green was showing. Quiet a fantasy picture. The periodic sunbreaks made for some dramatic lighting. Everything from Mt Si to McClellens Butte were also well plastered with snow. It was quite pretty up there today.

It was a slow trip up and it was a fast trip down.

With snow on the Mt. Pilchuck road our group of ten could not drive all the way to the Heather Lake trailhead. We got up the road about 1/2 mile before the snow got to deep for our van. High clearence 4-wheel drives could go further. After hiking up the road to the trailhead, we put on our snowshoes and headed for the lake. Lots of new snow as we went up higher. A few places where trees are over the trail, but you can bypass them since you can go off trail through the snow.

Before getting to the lake, met two guys who didn't have snowshoes and had post holed all the way. Some of their holes were pretty deep. Even two skiers shown up. The lake is all frozen over covered with a blanket of snow. After eatting our lunches and some photos on a clear day of the cirque on Mt. Pilchuck, we headed back down. Met lots of people who were going up and some of the usual few ill equiped guys with no packs. They were eatting snow since they had no water with them. As we got back to the regular trail head at 2:30 pm, some snowshoers were just starting for the lake.

My favorite hiking partner and I left the parking lot at Longmire at 11:30 and proceeded up to the ridge. From the beginning it was challenging because we had never been on this route and we had to break trail. There had been much snow and no one on this trail for a couple days. On the way up the sun appeared and as the temperature rose the snow bombs came crashing all around. Somehow we were'nt taking any direct hits but I think someone would be hurt if they did. When we reached the top we had a quick lunch and went along the ridge toward the Wonderland trail junction and back to Longmire, we hoped. The views were great and the trail a bit easier to follow. As we reached the area where we thought the Wonderland trail jct. was, we could not find it and ended up on some false trails that only led to trouble. So we doubled back and came back the long way. We reached our car at dark but still it was a good shoeing experience.

It snowed all day. There was a lot of snow on the route into the area in the vicinity of Red Mt. My friend broke all of the trail. The snow depth ranged from 6 to 8 inches to 18 inches. While he claimed it was fairly light, there still was a ton of it. No one on the way in. Met a few small parties on the way out. Lots of snow out there. Of course, the predicted rising snow levels will change this report.

Have fun.

After a trip a few years ago with the famous climbing kitty, Pilar, it was time to meet another feline -- catwoman. We parked very near exit 45 and donned snowshoes immediately. Taking a few shortcuts instead of the switchbacking road, we made short time in the fairly deep fluff getting to the summer trailhead. En route, we managed to dismount a log or two in uncatlike form (i.e. not always landing on our feet) but quickly pounced back on our snowshoes with only a few snowflakes on the whiskers.

The road was packed down in two tracks by various skiing and snowshoeing parties from the weekend. It's a good ski trip when the snow level is low.

The packed path was easy to follow along the summer trail most of the way to Talapus Lake. There were a few places where parties had split up. On one occasion we took the upper path and ended up at a snack spot in an open area. Alas, the path descended, wasting precious elevation, to rejoin the trail. Soon we were at the lake, quite pristine with a layer of smooth snow and a bit of sunshine.

Nobody had stomped a trail to Ollalie Lake, so catwoman took to it like a ball of yarn and we followed a compass bearing, then the creek draining the lake to a snowshoe path coming from exit 47. Soon we were at Ollalie Lake and lounging in glorious sunshine, super fresh air, and 3 foot deep powder. Unfortunately, the catnap was over when the sun moved behind the trees. Shadowing our plowed trail, the descent was much easier. We met one other party with two huge friendly dogs part way down the road. The descent was also quicker by cutting switchbacks in the relatively open forest (on snow, of course!)

Creeping along the snowy and icy roads to the end of the plowed section of the Mountain Loop Highway, we were the first to arrive at Deer Creek Road. The original destination was Kelcema Lake. Deer Creek Road was well packed for the first .5 miles. The crust was actually pretty firm for more than a mile or two. Then we came to the first of 3 major creek crossings. In the 15 years I have been going up this road in winter, I have never seen such massive amounts of slide debris at these crossings. The first one was not too bad-perhaps 100 or so feet wide. The second crossing was a different story - perhaps 100 yards wide. There was quite a route finding challenge to get across this slide. No one had been above the second slide section for quite some time and our snowshoe trough was about a foot deep. The third crossing of debris was somewhere between the first two. Above that point the snow became progressively deeper and the hairpin switchback in the road became the lunch spot and turnaround point. Back at the cars we were greeted to the usual affair - ATV's spinning donuts, snowmobiles zipping down the road, 4WD pickups towing inner tubes and snowboarders down the road - the usual zoo.

I gazed at Olallie, surrounded by a perfect winter silence, for only a few minutes. It was late and I had to get back to the car before dusk. I thought about how the trail had yielded few good views save for the lovely snow-draped conifers in every direction. But no panoramas. Olallie was hidden completely.

I made it most of the way just in boots with gaiters. For the final quarter mile I had to break out the snow shoes.

X-C skiing with my owner and her friend Denise. Tracked in about 3 miles then a slick ride back. 2 guys ahead of us broke trail, which was great on our paws. I'm glad this trail is dog friendly as I saw other 4-legged friends up there too. Starts to get steeper if we went further, but the weather was closing in so we turned around. Saw about 10 other X-C skiers and got to lick some pans that someone put out for me.

Wanted a taste of snow in the 'Alps' so headed for the backside of Cougar and the always enjoyable Wilderness Cliffs / Creek semiloop. Small amounts of snow at bottom, perhaps 6"" on top, the trail usually stomped all the way down to the mud. Very pretty with salal and misc underbrush all flocked w some very wet sticky snow. Sometime during this hike apparently the lowlands got a lot more snow than we saw falling, although was hard to tell what was sky snow and what was being flushed from the tall trees by the wind. Mixture of dark mud and white snow made for kind of a 'mudd pie' appearance to trail, easier (and more fun) to go through mudd than around into the snow almost all the time. Top of Pk was windy and only there was the mudd unthawed. On the return down Wilderness Ck, the part of trail w the boulders and planks is pretty flooded, best tactic is to again stomp through the middle of trail/creek combo in almost foot deep water. Better tactic, that is, than trying to go round side and grasping at the underbrush for balance, since the underbrush happens to be the Devil's Club (horribulum!)

Due to icy highways we decided on a late start for Mt Tenerife. To get to Tenerife one drives 1 mi past the Mt Si trailhead, to a bus turnout/parking area on Left and were ""private"" road begins. Started hiking at 10:45am w/a little snow on road. A couple miles up, at 2800 ft we put on the snowshoes. Hiked thru 12-24"" of new snow. The intent was to go to Tenerife, but met up w/another local, went straight when we should of gone right at one of the switchbacks, so ended up ""higher"" on a ridge road which the ""local"" person call Snag Peak. Made it to 4700 ft summit where fresh snow was 2ft deep. Very beautiful, on top the trees were plastered hard w/snow. They made awesome figures. Theres a ""cool"" snag tree standing on this summit, about 30 ft tall. If you used your imagination it remined me of a miniture ""space needle"". 3hr45min up 5 mi, down 2hr. It would of been another 1mi to saddle of Tenerife, where one turns off the road for the summit ridge. We had some sunshine and awesome views of Mt Si and surrounding peaks. One tree down, many trees were weighted down, bent over, covering the road.

Real icy with fresh snow on the main trail. Bring insteps or full crampons. Snowshoes not necessary until you break outta the trees at 4600'. After that it is deep snow, and the final summit push has snow covered talus slopes, as the wind has blow it all away. Very windy and snowy though made it more challenging. Mailbox is covered in deep snow. Beware of the cornice!

We have been exploring this nice lowland area while I rehab a bad knee, thus making it more than a one day trip. It is on the ridge above (to the east) Redmond- Novelty Hill Road to the south and 133rd NE, off Avondale Road, to the north. The south end has a nice restroom complex- locked- and big parking area. Most importantly there are nice paper maps available. All trails are well marked so easy to explore the loops and one could go 6-8 miles doing them all. We like the area in the NE corner best so far as it has a nice beaver area. We have not seen the NW corner yet. This is a pretty, not heavily used area, for those of us longing for the forest this time of year! Mixed use- horses and bikes allowed on some of the trails. Pleasant!

Having plans to head to the desert lands east of Vantage dashed by a wise choice to not cross the Cascades under the current weather conditions, I opted to head out locally and enjoy the pleasures the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge could offer me. Wow, what a great place this is that I've driven past dozens of times but never stopping. To make matters better, for some reason the clouds broke up from torrential rains of the past two days just as I pulled into the refuge gates! Temperatures were already falling after the cold front passage so I bundled up and tried to figure out a way to (a) dress warm and dry, (b) haul my binoculars for wildlife viewing, and (c) haul my camera gear to keep it dry but still use it. Nature made it easy on me as I headed out on the dike road/trail as it stayed relatively dry for the first three miles of the 5 1/2 mile loop. Immediately I began enjoying the rich bird diversity this site offers, and by the time the hike was completed I saw 38 species of birds. The highlighted sightings were great-blue herons(11), bald eagles(3), red-tailed hawk, northern harriers(2), cooper's hawk, northern flicker, pileated woodpecker, belted kingfishers(4), golden-crowned kinglets(50+), common mergansers(100+ in Nisqually River), buffleheads(10+), horned grebes(2), hooded mergansers(25+), double-crested cormorants(5), surf scoters(3), American wigeons(50+), green-winged teals(4), northern shovelers(8), common goldeneyes(25+), and to cap off the day two spectacular trumpeter swans near the entry gates! I also was rather thrilled to see a single myrtle warbler not five minutes from the visitor center as my hike began who was very cooperative for the camera! Other wildlife sightings included dozens of coyote scat piles, a seal fishing in the Nisqually River, and two very fresh 1/2 chewed alder trees, both more than a foot in diameter, from the craftsmanship of the busy beavers. The last two miles were hiked in a stiff wind and very bitter cold driving rainstorm, which turned to sleet and snow just as I got back to the visitor center. The heater in the rig never has felt so nice! In all, a spectacular, bone chilling, and soaking wet day with the birds, and one which I'll need to perform many more times.

Real icy at milepost 1.5, and really rough after that. Only made it to mile 3 as it was getting dark and we had to be somewhere else and it was slow going. Had to share one of my crampons, so we only had one each.

(01/05/02)Wanting to head off to someplace new and not too far on a short day, I moseyed down through the fun town of Eatonville and stopped in to hike around in the Pack Forest, off of Hwy 7 just past the junction with Hwy 161. This was a really neat place to wander around, offering everything from hills to climb, old growth forests to explore, to waterfalls and train trestles. Roads are closed within the forest on weekends for open walking, but weekdays would be fun too as you could drive to areas, hike into the trails, drive to the next area, hike more, etc.... I hiked up from the parking area on road 1000 intending on visiting the Little Marshel River area and the waterfalls there. Unfortunately, upon starting the decent down an unmarked muddy path that leads to the river I was greeted with the beginning of someone starting their illegal Saturday lunchtime shooting at things in the river gorge. I waited a good half hour for the shooting to stop, but it never did and I wasn't going to head down in there with this person likely having no clue someone could be hiking in from the other side (they obviously walked the RR tracks from the road across the gorge to easily slip in to this area). Alas, but I did return two weeks after this visit (1/24/02 today), walked the darn tracks myself, and got in the gorge to get my photographs of the RR trestle, the river, and the wonderful waterfalls! Now I'll need to return with more time to explore the trail of the old giant trees.

Why go to a stark, barren place in winter? Well, number one, it's an amazing place any time. Number two, we had 1022 miles of sunshine. Number three, no snakes!

We headed to the Grand Coulee area and goofed around there a day or so. Grand Coulee in winter??? Yes! It's beautiful. Icicles dripping from the coulee walls, snow accentuating the contours, resting on the muliple layers of basalt. It's so silent that you can hear the wings of the birds beating in the wind as they fly by in the hundreds. The calls of geese echoing, echoing across the coulees. Hawks lazily riding the wind, the swish of wind whistling through the sagebrush, winter grasses, cattails, dogwood and ponderosas. These are just a few of the things that make Central Washington beautiful.

Wastucna Coulee south of the Palouse Falls warrants mention. It rivals any place in the state for beauty. Look for giant ripple marks near the town of Kahlota, left by the massive floods. Look carefully; they're so huge, it's difficult to see them ground-level.

We then headed to the Saddle Mountains. We chose to approach the Saddle Mountains from the South - highway 24, from Othello. I prefer the South side of the Saddles rather than the north. The south side shows it's soft contours. Sure, the dramatic cliffs are all an the north side, but so are the farms, silos, outbuildings and sadly, abandoned cars left on the side of the road. The south side is the Wahluke WRA, and there are no buildings, no litter, no signage; nothing but rolling hills, golden grasses, tumbleweeds and wind. Between milepost 60 and 61, turn north onto a one lane paved road. When you get near the top of the ridge, bear right, and drive to the end of the road. Then get out and walk along the bare, rolling ridgeline. You can see the deep channels left by the floods and the pothole lakes to the north, and to the south are Horse Heaven Hills, the Columbia glinting in the sun, to the west are the Boylstons, the Yakimas and the Cascades.

We had to adjust our eyes when we hit the west side of the Pass on the way home; the green is shocking after 3 days of golden grass and soft, dusty-green sagebrush.

We decided to try skiing Hex for MLK day since the snow was a bit too deep and unstable further west for fun turns. Yanna, Skip, Jack (the bipeds), Sasha, Max (the quadrupeds) headed up on a few inches of fresh snow over wet snow that was starting to freeze up. Barely enough cover at the road to make us feel OK about the tour. After a shortcut that turned into a longcut, we were back on route and made our way up the road, to another shortcut that actually WAS short (there are a few switchbacks in the road that are well worth cutting off), and we were on the ridge trail. Turns out they've been logging a bit up there since I was last on Hex about 4 years ago, which removed some of the most amazing large trees, and thus changed the character of the tour a bit. But the lower and upper parts of the ridge are still full of wonderful big old trees, and so we endured the newest clearcuts with moderately good humor - still a good tour to be sure.

The ski down was fantastic - plenty of powder on the upper portion where we made many fine turns, and just enough powder on the lower road to make for a smooth but quick return to the car. We saw fresh snowshoe tracks at the bottom, but we saw no people all day long.

Hex is a great ski tour when the snow is a little on the deep side to the west.

Decided to do Lake 22 after the recent snowfall. This makes for a great short snow shoe outing. We arrived around 1 pm to a virtually empty parking lot and a good 10 inches of unplowed snow. Was this ever deceptive! Strapping on the snow shoes, we ended up taking them off a quarter mile into the hike as the trail became snow free. For the most part, you really don't need them until you reach the open slope area. From there on, it's continuous snow up to the lake. Currently the snow on this slope is not deep enough to slide, however it's always best to use caution when approaching this area. The lake is completely covered and, although visibility was limited, we could hear avalanches coming down on the other side of the lake. We encountered four groups of people. They must have parked along the road. In all it was a beautiful day!

Started at 8:15 at the Kautz Creek trailhead. The rangers were requiring chains beyond this point so we picked our location well today. The trail is well packed to the creek crossing and beyond. We broke off the trail around 3100 feet traversing upward to the 4000 foot ridge on Tumtum's northwest side. Lots of new snow kept us at a crawl. The last 600 feet was deep power at too steep of a slope to have a good time. Summit at 11:15 with snow dumping everywhere. A viewless summit for a viewless day. The return was quick and I was back at work in Sumner by 2:15. Good bad day trip with no avalanche danger.

The Bullitt Access Trail is clear of obstructions. There are some areas with running water. There are many logs across the Chybinski Trail. There is a cinder-block building near the highest point of the trail. Sky was overcast and temperatures were moderate above 900 feet. Temperatures were cool below 900 feet.

We enjoyed a bracing walk up the Iron Horse- from the Twins Lakes entry to the east. The highlight was meeting some others using this trail today- three mountain goats!! The only other people we saw on the trail today were coming the other way, just then, and they saw four in this group. There were two adults and two kids! They came up from below the trail and then up the hill right next to the trestle over Change Creek! The 1"" of snow made it easy to enjoy their tracks too! We have not seen any along the trail before!

Hit the trail by 9am, after cancelling a Granite Mountain climb due to the high avalanche conditions. Made it on the road all the way to the one lane bridge about a 1/4 mile from the Denny Creek campground due to Snowplow snow walls.

Hiked on fresh snow up the road to the trailhead. Continued up the trail past I-90, and over the footbridges. These things must be very strong as they had a buildup of about 5 feet of snow on top of them (thats alot of weight). Passed by the first falls (keekwulee falls) and then made a few traverses past some avalanche danger slopes that had shown some previous debris slides. After ascending the first series of switchbacks (it was not hard to stay on trail from depressions, and we had good leaders - [ToTheTop and Jerry S])Once we reached the basin before Hemlock Pass we decided to stop and have lunch and call it the turn around point. Alison then fell into a snowbridge up to her waist. After we pulled her out we noticed it was about 15 feet down and the snowbridge was only about a foot deep. Good thing she did not fall through as the digging out process would have been hard. Some poor visibility, wind and snow, but all in all - we were all happy we got out! scott@nwog.org

Arrived at the trail head about 0930, started up to Heather Lake about 1000 hrs. Light snow on the trail right from the beginning as I climbed higher up the snow started to get deeper, about 3/4 of the way I put on my snow shoes and got to the Lake about 1130, After about 20 minutes at the lake it started to snow real hard, headed back down alot of people were coming up and had packed down the trail so after a little ways you could take off the snow shoes. The end of the trail at the lake is easy to lose as it was totally snow covered. A great day for a little hike in the snow.

Hiked with my buddy Doug up the Boulder River trail, perhaps two miles.

Some slush on the road but not a problem. Two cars already there when we arrived.

The first mile of trail is standing water and slush with stretches of bare dirt and mud. My toes got plenty wet but Dougs new boots kept his feet dry. There was a blowdown that required stooping and a little clambering.

The second mile was more snowy but obvious and not difficult or very slick.

A great winter hike on a drizzly, misty day. Big trees were gorgeous and the waterfalls impressive. This was my second time and heck, I'd go again. -Dox

Just tried to go snowshoeing at Barclay Lake. After turning onto Forest Service Road # 6024, we got about 50 yards, just after crossing over the railroad tracks when we were stopped by a tree that had fallen directly across the path, couldn't go any further, and didn't feel like snowshoeing the 4 miles just to get to the trail head. Unfortunately, we left our chain saw at home. Maybe next time.

Skied up Umptanum Ridge from just W of the Umptanum Falls trailhead. Here a road comes in from the south. With skins, climbed onto the broad spur E of the road and carried on to the ridge top in a hammering wind. Lower, the snow was thin with some bare spots and much sage and bitterbrush. We followed an old jeep track to where the ridge steepens. Higher up, sun and wind had left a hard crust on a thicker snowpack. From the top, we could look down into both Ellensburg and, to the SE through Selah Gap, Yakima. It was a fun descent down the road which we could mostly ski back to the car, passed at one point by two 4x4 vehicles out on a tour of their own. This is a magnificent flower hike in the spring to a scenic highlight of Central Washington.

Spent Sunday morning hiking around Squwak mountain . I started at the Mountainside access point and went up the central creek trail coming back down Phil's creek trail and the Eastside trail, (a very nice loop as described in Mr. Manning's 55 hikes around Snoqualmie Pass book. It was pretty windy and there was some new blow down on the trail. Saw a good sized alder crack and go over just a half mile or so from the trail head. There was still snow from several days before covering the top 400 or 500 vertical feet of the mountain. It was pretty darn sloppy, (read popsicles for toes.) The top was completely socked in, couldn't even see the top of the microwave towers and pretty darn windy up there too. Phil's creek trail was very slippery, a hiking stick would have helped, (or a tobogan...) There is a new, good sized mud slide on the return trip along the Eastside trail, but mother nature slid a nice stump right in the middle to hold on to while pulling you boots out of the mud. This is a very nice loop for a morning or afternoon; quiet, lots of great scenery and close.

The weather report indicated snow levels down to 1500', so it was time to snowshoe on Tiger. Started at the Tiger Summit trailhead around 3:30 PM. Within less than a mile there was a noticeable amount snow on the road (which is closed to motorized vehicles this time of year). At 2000', the snow covered the entire road and snowshoes were donned. Quite a bit of fresh powder soon presented itself, though it was noticeably sticky on the snowshoes. Made a right turn at the 2400' level and had a nice breeze pushing me up to the next Y at 2600'. Turned left and made the final push for the summit. Snow was getting quite deep at this point. Even with the snowshoes, I was sinking 8-10"". Sheets of snow covered the trees on the road to the summit, causing their branches to droop. The sight was incredible. Gracefully arched trees reflecting light to create a cathedral-like effect. The deep snow absorbed all sound and the tranquility was sublime. For a minute I could have been in the Black Forest, the subject of a Grimm tale. Who would think to bring a camera on a dark, stormy day like this?

I reached the summit (3004') right as it started getting dark, so I didn't stay long. My flashlight had to be deployed soon after starting the descent. No problems coming down in the dark, except for a very thick fog that rolled in for the last half mile of the hike. I had trouble seeing more than 10-15 feet in front of me. I could not even make out the road. I found my way back by holding my flashlight close to the ground and following the drainage ditch. GPS showed me that I was on track. Even though I was ""only"" on Tiger, practically ""in the city"", this was a reminder that things can go wrong very quickly even a few hundred yards from safety. A surprising little twist to an overall excellent outing.

After an epic adventure just to the trailhead (crazy snowplows/drunk women hopping logs in ford explorers, etc) we got going at the deer creek barricades at about 630am. It was a long slog as there was about 6 inches of new snow and we were making fresh tracks. It was wet and heavy. We made it to the Dickerman trailhead (4 miles from the barricades) in about 1hr 45min. For the previous few days we specualted that the road and the first mile or two was snow free as we were making tracks that uncovered dirt on the trail. The one thing that stinks about the Dickerman Trail in the winter is that alot of the deciduous trees lean over the trail and causes havoc with your pack if you carry any other gear such as ice axe or wands (I had both) It was easy going up until mile 1.5 where it was getting deeper, yet lighter. Navigation was not difficult until mile 2.5 where we had to turn around due to snow conditions. On the traverses across the 3 gulches we found a layer of ice that was covered with multiple inches of fresh snow. With snowshoes it was real difficult as each step you had to self belay and got real tiring after awhile (getting the spike in the ice). There is some moderate exposure after crossing the gulches as there are some cliffs that drop off after the trees that are about 5 yards down off the trail. After slipping several times and getting worn out by this mother of a mountain we turned around, crossed the gulches, and had some lunch. The descent was quick, and the walk out on the Mtp Loop Highway back to the trailhead (4 miles) was espeically long. I am now 1 out of 4 for winter ascents on this mountain. Make sure to start real early if you want to bag this one in a day. scott@nwog.org

Enjoyed the short snowshoe up to Lanham Lake beginning at the Stevens Ski Nordic Center. We were second group of people heading up...started about 10am and loads of folks came about a half hour to an hour later.

Icy beginning to trail, after gaining the powerline ridge and crossing cross country ski trails we hit lots of new snow about 6-8 inches deep, before entering the valley. The trail was easy to follow along the creek, and a valley that's not very wide - not much chance of getting lost.

We finally hit the lake about noon and had a short lunch. The sun gods were with us as we had driven through snow on the way up, and hiked through clouds, but for 15 glorious minutes we sampled the sun while eating...with great views of the surrounding mountain tops and ridges! After lunch we walked about the lake. No one had done that yet so it was fresh snow - the lake wasn't completely frozen solid it appeared in the south end.

As we headed back down we decided to break lots of new trails and had great fun working our way through new snow and getting quite a workout going down. The valley's tight enough your not going to get lost with the creek for a reference point.

This snowshoe is a good one for people starting out - not terribly long, but with enough elevation gain you get a workout. Adding the chance to go through new snow made it that much more fun. And there was a party that was camping overnight too - sounded like a great place for that. But start early or it will be like Grand Central Station (or Pike's Market)later in the day.

The forest was a winter wonderland of snow laden trees as we snowshoed the June Lake Loop in steady snow showers with the air temperature right at freezing.

We drove to the Marble Mountain Sno-Park on the south side of Mount St. Helens, via State Highway 503 from Woodland to Cougar, then east 6.7 miles on Forest Road 90, left on Forest Road 83 and another 8 miles to the sno-park at 2,700 feet. This large sno-park is heavily used by snowmobiles so we left Portland at 7:30 a.m. to be sure to get a parking space.

From the sno-park, we hiked east on Pine Marten Trail 245 for 1.1 miles to the junction with the June Lake Trail. The Pine Marten Trail parallels snow-covered Road 83, giving muscle-powered snow travelers a way to avoid the snow machines racing up and down the road. In the couple of places where we had to take to the road to cross branches of Swift Creek, we were fortunate to do so when snowmobiles weren't in the area. We turned away from the road onto June Lake Trail 216B and began climbing gently but steadily for 1.5 miles to June Lake at 3,160 feet. The forest is uninteresting plantations replacing 30-year-old clearcuts, but occasional views are available down to June Lake Creek.

June Lake, a small pond created when a lava flow blocked a creek, still was open water, attesting to our warmer than normal winter. Some years it is frozen over and covered by snow so that's its difficult to tell where the lake actually begins. We took a quick break for water and snacks, then turned onto Pika Trail 244D, which climbs across the lava flow and up the west ridge to the Swift Creek Trail in .5 mile. We turned uphill on Swift Creek Trail 244, followed it around the base of the Worm Lava Flows and intersected the Loowit Trail, then continued to a stand of trees to be used as a windbreak for our lunch stop at about 3,600 feet.

After lunch, we headed down the Swift Creek Trail for 3.3 miles back to the Marble Mountain Sno-Park. This direct, steady descent follows an old logging road long ago converted to a winter trail. Our total distance was about 8 miles.

Well, I-90 was closed down for about an hour this morning between about 9:30 and 10:30am.

We broke trail to the top distributed over a number of folks that kind of met doing the ski trip. A few inches down below to probably 8 inches to a foot at the top. Since we had lost an hour we hit near the top and turned around leaving the others to do the cross-over. We headed back down our route for a fast ski.

No grooming today which is sometimes a blessing. There was softer snow outside the tracks rather than the plowed/packed skate track to the junction. It was fast coming down on my wax skis. The waxless folks had to ""pedal"" more (G)

There was a sucker hole when we started but not much visibility once we were moving up. It was blowing and snowing at the top and the whole way back down.

A good workout. Yes, there is snow on the trail - that's the way it is supposed to be.

I was almost to the trailhead when I realized I forgot the water bottles. Luckily in the back seat was a 1 gallon empty apple juice container. I hoped to find a good water source on the trail. It was partly snowing upon arrival at the Carbon River Entrance. I parked at 8:15 and started down the little nature loop trail. Soon the unmaintained Boundary trail was on the right. Up, up, up during a heavy snowfall and where is all the snow accumulation? It just kept climbing with no snow except the inch or so that fell the night before. I was very thirsty when I came upon a large creek to fill the jug. Sure was good! Before I knew it, I was approaching the ridge top at 4500 feet where the trail drops down into the Tolmie Creek drainage. Only at this point was there any significant snow accumulation. I was on the ridge to Florence in just over 2 hours. I continued along the ridge (Alki Crest) toward Florence. Some ups and down, a reentrance into the park and without much effort, I was at the last 100 feet. This section still had exposed rocks. The south summit seemed shorter so I quickly traversed to the true summit. The true summit had a lot more exposed rocks to climb on. No views but the snow did stop falling while I was on top. I got a brief glimpse of the ridge down to Sweet Peak but no views of the tree covered peak. I dropped back down and over the false summit. Continuing down, I took a North turn to follow the ridge to Sweet. No difficulties to the saddle below Sweet. The ascent of Sweet was quick and painless. The summit is in the woods but there is an apex of 3 ridges coming together to one spot with some rocks. To get back, I followed my tracks back down to the saddle. Then I dropped West into the drainage until 3800 feet where I found the trail back to the Ranger Station. Florence summit was at noon. Sweet was at 12:40. Back to car at 1:50. This trip took several hours less time than I thought it would.

Took Annette Lake trail to about 3500 ft. It was snowing and below freezing by a few degrees. Then headed up hill, due west. Once we were off the trail, we needed snowshoes at first, and then crampons and and ice axe. Slopes approached 70 degrees as we got close to the ridge. Topped out on the ridge well above the shoulder. Ridge was corniced, and varied from icy- to deep, wind-deposited powder - to rotten refrozen snow. It tend to be Narrow and rocky. Felt very exposed in places. We tended to the right on the ridge to avoid the lee deposited snow (cornices), but visibility was low so it may have been safer to err to the left on the uncorniced areas as that slope is at least visible and unobstructed. Seemed that many parts of the ridge on the right (east side) were very steep below the immediate slopes. Although it was hard to tell with limited visibility. We made a weather call (increasing snow, wind, decreasing visibility) about 50 feet below the actual summit.

On the descent we made our back along the ridge and south past where we had first come on to the ridge, all the way down to where it rounds to a shoulder and then down to the fairly level notch or saddle area. From there, we headed east. This was much easier grade for descent than the way up. Nice going most of the way. After descending through densely growing small conifers for 30 minutes, we came upon the annette lake trail a hunred yards before it cross the iron-horse trail.

Started at about 7:00am and ended around 3:pm. Plan for more time on the ridge as the traverse is slow going.

jasonthoffman@hotmail.com

This peak is south of Russian Butte and is identified on the USGS Bandera map as Peak 5454. It offers a substantial elevation gain of 5,000' with little avalanche risk. Plus it is close to Seattle. Travel I-90 east getting off at Exit 34. Turn left at the bottom and 1/2 mile further turn right onto the Middle Fork of Snoqualmie Road. Several miles later the pavement will end. 1/4 mile further on the right will be the start of the Granite Creek logging road at ~700 feet elevation. I mountain biked up about 3 miles until the snow stopped me at 1,700 feet. If you have a mountain bike it is the way to go as the monotony on the way out is turned into an exilarating quick ride out. The Granite Creek logging road continues to go way up to almost 5,000 feet. I stayed on it until 4,200' and then just went straight up to connect with point 5124. This saves about 1 mile of road travel. At Point 5124 you stay on the ridge travelling NE until it connects with the summit at 5,454. There is a slight downclimb of about 150 feet between those two points. On this day it was quite foggy with visability about 200 feet. I had hoped to get pictures of Russian Butte which is due north. Left the car at 8:15AM and summited at 1:25PM. Back to the car at 3:45PM.

The snowshoe route up Mowich Lake Road is well traveled but on this day I had it to myself. At 11:30 I hit the trail at the Paul Peak parking area under an overcast sky. An abundance of waterfalls, seeping rock faces and icicles made for a pleasant trip as did the snow which began falling. I chose to stay on the road and save the red flagged shortcuts (see carbon river report jan 13)for the descent. I fell into a good rhythm and was surprised to find myself at the Mowich Lake turnaround at 1:10. The far end of the lake was obscured by the shroud of falling snow which was increasing in intensity. Sometimes when the lowlands are covered in clouds or mist Rainier offers sunshine with elevation. Today was not one of those times. I headed back to the truck, taking advantage of two of the well marked shortcuts with their ""over the river and through the woods"" feeling. I reached the trailhead at 2:30. The fresh snow made the six inch deep snow/ice ruts seem more slippery than on the way in. Bring a 4X4 or walk the last half mile to the trailhead. Happy Trails!

A friend and I took the day off from work and went for a shoeing experience.The weather could not have been better!We arrived at the parking lot and got underway by 10 am.The trail is easy to follow and is more like a road than a trail for the first half mile.As you start to gain elevation hug the left side of the valley and climb the trail to the lake.There was fresh snow up there and was beautiful.We made our way around the lake and had lunch in the sun all the while being entertained by the masses of back country skiers and boarders coming down the mountain on the other side of the valley.When it is time to return to civilization I recommend taking the Snow Lake trail. You will be able to avoid the crowd and won't need to worry about being run over by a snow board.By taking this trail down you will come out by the ski lifts and walk the road back to your vehicle.P.S. There were signs of fresh avalanches on the ridge between Source and Snow Lakes!Be carful and good hiking!

We had sought to take the Damnation Creek Road, a spur off of the Thorton Lakes Road (marked on the USGS map) as an approach to Damnation Peak. We ran into vehicle-stopping snow a mile before the fork. The road is considerably overgrown now and does not make for pleasant travel. Portions had only light foliage to brush out of the way, but there are plenty dense sections of alder sprigs and small conifers coming up. There are also a few slides over the path about a mile in. There were several deer tracks over the snow, but the snow was not deep enough to ski through.

It is probably best to let this route return to wilderness. It is not very scenic anyway, since all the nice trees near the road have been cut. Virgin forest however is present a stone's throw up slope. For a better cross-county approach into the area, it might be good to try the forested ridge running north from the Thorton road...

Okay, so I am a Pichuck addict, and have nothing better to do. With recent job layoffs, I have found the time to do this stuff more often. We were supposed to do a 2 day Dickerman trip, but a late start made us hit Pilchuck instead. We left the trailhead at 3:30pm after a nice drive up the Pilchuck road. Blue skies greeted us, and warm weather that was graciously accepted on our part. We hit the saddle at 5pm and decided to pitch camp there. After digging out a shelter and putting up a wind wall, we got nestled into our tent. It was Rob's first field test of his 2 wall Hilleberg tent. All I can say is that they are fantastic cold weather tents! At 9pm we went out and ventured beneath the cliffs of Pilchuck and found Frozen Lake (or where it's supposed to be). There was alot of avalanche debris from the cliffs above, but the colder temps made travleing safe. It took some real muscle to make it up there as we had to ascend a few icy 30-40 degree slopes, but the purely clear skies and the stars made it so incredible. We got back to the tent and went to bed to awake to more great weather. We headed up around the backside of the mountain (real icy, crampons/ice axe recommended)and had a great time with the use of our crampons since the day before left us having a not so good time on the traverse. The summit provided gorgeous views of Baker, Shuksan, Pugh, Sloan, Glacier Peak, Rainier, American Border Peak, Three Fingers, and Whitehorse. The descent was great as well, with perfect snow conditions - and the glissade down was fun as always, but the 55lb packs didn't make it as fun as it should have. Go to Pilchuck! scott@nwog.org

Decided to head out a little east to take advantage of rumored sun for the day...turned out to be great choice as there was fog in the snoqualmie pass all day, but bright sun on Hex.

Parked at the turnout across Newport Creek from the beginning of road 116 - the start of the snow shoe. First mile was on hard snow with 1-2"" of new stuff on ground, some people simply walked up in shoes. At trail head for Hex Mt off of the road the snow got much deeper - 6-8"" or so of new stuff with great sunshine.

The trail isn't hard to follow - basically up the ridge line to the top - not a big deal even without tracks to follow. There were areas of drifting snow and areas scoured to ice from wind, but it was a calm day. Ran into a set of snowmobilers at one point on the ridge where their trail turns around with a great view.

After about 2.5 miles got into trees which were wonderful - blue sky above, flocked trees around a lots of new snow, quiet. There were a set of snowshoers ahead of me, and a set of skiers.

At top of Hex could see Rainier, Stuart and surrounding areas. Skiers at top went down some bowls back to trail head - I had lunch and enjoyed the view. Thought about heading down via Bear Creek - but didn't think I had enough time.

The way back was fun, stepping down in all that new snow was a treat, soft - only took half the time it took to go up! With a mile to go on the road I took my snowshoes off and walked on the packed snow.

Wonderful day - great snow shoe - about 2500 elevation, 7 miles roundtrip - and so different from areas further west. Much more open.

snow on the trail 6""-12"" at various spots. a lot of fallen trees, water on the trails. Talked to some snowshoers who thought there wasnt enough snow as compared to years past. still a good day hike. My four year old son did fine.

The road up to the trailhead is now 90% free of snow. W/O a 4WD you can get up to 1-2 miles before the trailhead. With a 4WD with low clearance you can get with in 1/4 mile, and all the way with good clearance. Joseph and I met Craig B (Beave). We left the trailhead about 8am and had a good time all the way up to the saddle (4600'). For some reason Jospeh and I took our snowshoes but left the crampons in the car. At the saddle and the rest of the way up was pretty icy, so all we had were our ice axes as Craig broke trail. The whole way we were setting tracks, so it was really pristine up there, just no views as visibility was bad. Once at the lookout, it is quite easy to gain access as it has completely melted out. Some boulders have revealed themselves as well. Had some nice glissading down from the saddle as well. Good times. Trip report and images are at: http://www.nwog.org/reports/011302pilchuck.htm So go to Pilchuck while you still can!

Figuring on a long day, we (two humans, two leashed dogs) were on the trail by 9:30. There was only one other car at the trailhead so already we felt better than if we were hiking Si. The snow was spotty for the first two or three miles, but by the time we were huffing up the switchbacks it was uniform over the trail about two inches deep.

Before we got to the top of the switchbacks we ran into the other party (four humans, two dogs) on its way down. They turned back when the snow was too deep for them. We didn't see anyone else until we were on the way back down.

At the knob above the clearcut there was four inches of new snow over several feet of crusty snow. The dogs didn't break through, but on occasion we did. We had one set of snowshoes which we switched back and forth for a bit to break trail, but it didn't prove to be that much of a help.

We reached the saddle at about 1:30, but the views were completely hidden by clouds. We were short on time and had trouble finding the trail to the summit so we called it a day and headed back. We saw a couple groups of casual hikers/walkers below the snow level, but no one seriously heading up high.

This superb snowshoe trip begins at the White River West Sno-Park (4,223'), 7 miles east of Government Camp on Oregon Highway 35. The main attractions of this hugely popular area are open, gentle slopes and breathtaking views up White River Canyon to the White River Glacier on Mount Hood. It is one of the most popular and congested Nordic skiing and snow play areas on Mount Hood, but we have found that we leave most of the crowd behind after we have gone a mile.

Today, our Trails Club of Oregon group enjoyed bright sun, no wind, and mild temperatures. About 3 inches of powder overlay the packed ice created by last week's rain and warm temperatures. Mount Hood dominated the scene ahead as we hiked north from the Sno-Park on a tree-studded bench above the river valley. Our goal was the middle morraine in the center of the valley, with 1,400' feet of elevation gain to the high point.

We stayed on the bench until it merges with the west ridge, then descended to cross the White River on a snowbridge. It is important to stay away from the base of the steep west ridge since the slope is prone to avalanches. The toe of the morraine was directly ahead, and the real climbing began here. The wind-swept morraine was mostly ice, so our snowshoes functioned more for traction than flotation. We reached the high point on the morraine for lunch, applied more sunscreen and enjoyed the view south down the Cascades crest to Mount Jefferson and beyond to the Three Sisters. Clouds and fog blew in at the front of the next storm as we descended back to the Sno-Park and the conclusion of this 6 mile hike.

The Valley Connector and West Peak Trail junction with the Bullitt Fireplace Trail is as shown on the Green Trail map (as opposed to what was reported earlier). They are just buried under a mass of logs.

At 1.0 miles, the May Valley Trail leaves the road to the left at a hairpin curve. There is a sign that indicates the trail ends in 0.1 miles. This pertains to the side trail to the east that ends at a private property line. The May Valley Trail heads north along Bullitt Creek. There is some construction on the May Valley Trail. There are some muddy spots and brushy areas. No logs across the trail. The tread is narrow and there are brushy spots on the Perimeter Loop Trail. There are brushy spots along the West Peak Trail and there are many logs across the trail. There is a small transmitting station on West Peak. The West Peak Trail is buried under many logs where it meets the Bullitt Fireplace Trail. The Bullitt Fireplace and Central Peak Trails are clear except for one overhanging three on The Bullitt Fireplace Trail. The Valley Connector Trail has many logs across it. Skies were overcast and temperatures were moderate.

My favorite hiking partner and I went snowshoeing today on the Mowich Lake Rd. to the Lake . The drive to the TH was not a problem except the final half mile. It got deep fast. Hope you have a 4x4! The pit toilets were a nice touch! As you proceed up the road you will come upon a small red flag on the left side of the road. This indicates a short-cut to the road above. All you have to do is follow the red tin flags nailed about 15 ft.up on the trees. The only problem is that as soon as you go through the ditch you need to go hard right and climb along the road for a short while and look for the flags! It seems like you should go straight ahead,but don't! This will only send you up to where others wished they hadn't gone. Once you figure out the red flag thing you can cut off some milage and enjoy some beautiful winter forests. There are two more marked trails through the forest when you reach the end of this shortcut. It was a long hike. Start early.Happy hiking!

The road up to Whiskey Bend is in good shape and even some potholes have been filled in.

There are a few down trees but nothing difficult to step over. The Geyser Valley Trail just upstream from Goblin Gates has washed out into the Elwha River for about 50 feet or so but it's easy to pick up again by just following along the river. The Krause Bottom Trail between Humes Ranch and the bridge over the Elwha has also washed out and is in danger of eroding further into the Elwha. Again, it's easy to find the trail again by just walking through the grass and forest and looking for it.

It is obvious that the Elwha River was very high recently to have caused the above washouts.

As always though, this is an absolutely beautiful hike, even in (or especially in) the rain.

We snowshoed this beautiful forest trail and took advantage of our travel mode to do some cross-country exploration on this Trails Club of Oregon trip. The snow was icy from the warm temperatures and heavy rain earlier in the week, so we needed our snowshoes more for grip than for flotation.

The hike begins at the Frog Lake Sno-Park (3,952') on U.S. Highway 26 4.1 miles south of the intersection with Oregon Highway 35, southeast of Government Camp. We started out by snowshoeing north on the Pacific Crest Trail for 1.5 miles to the intersection with the Twin Lakes Trail. The PCT climbs gently but steadily through oldgrowth forest of western hemlocks. We turned east onto the Twin Lakes Trail, climbed about 100 yards to a pass over the ridge at 4,460' and then descended to Lower Twin Lake at 4,160'. This small lake sits deep in a forested basin and was solidly frozen and snow-covered. We paused briefly - just long enough for the gray jays to find us - before heading to Upper Twin Lake.

Rather than follow the trail to Upper Twin Lake (4,440'), we took the more direct route up the drainage of the outlet creek that connects the two lakes. We climbed about 240' in .3 mile, arriving on its southern shore, where we paused for lunch. Upper Twin Lake also was frozen and snow-covered. On a clear day, a view of Mount Hood is available from this location, but today we saw only leaden skies and falling snow.

Rather than follow the trail beyond Upper Twin Lake back to a junction with the PCT, which would have been long and boring through dog-hair second growth forest resulting from a long ago forest fire, we decided to explore climbing directly over the ridge bordering the west shore of the lake to reach the PCT on the other side. Switchbacking up the ridge warmed us up quickly and was very scenic as we traveled through more oldgrowth forest. We wound around to avoid patches of ""dog hair,"" descended and found ourselves quickly back at the PCT. We turned south and hiked about a mile to the junction where we had turned off, then continued back to the Sno-Park. We estimated that we went about 6.5 miles.

Oh my goodness! Could it possibly rain and snow anymore on a hike. We even were treated to a rare winter electrical storm. If I hadn't had the companionship of six others guys this outing would have been depressing as we were all soaked to the skin at the end. McClain Peak is prominent on the western edge of the Cascades when viewed from Seattle or Bellevue. It is just to the south of Phelps Mt which looks like a gray thumb due east of Kirkland. Beckey calls McClain ""Little Phelps."" Many maps incorrectly label McClain as Phelps. McClain will be the 5,162 foot tall peak on the map. Drive I-90 east to Exit 31, North Bend. Turn right at the stoplight in town and then two blocks east will be Ballaratt St. Turn left (north) there. Four miles north of North Bend will a Y. Take the uphill road which will have a large yellow gate (hopefully open). Drive on this road to connect with the North Fork of the Snoqualmie road. You should get a copy of the USGS map for the area. Take this until the snow stops you. Then hike up the road and turn left on FS road 5730. After about 1 mile a spur road angles up steeply to the right. That is the road to the now closed BlackHawk mine. Go up that road until the mine (the gravel on the road will become red in color). This is at about 2,600'. Then go right into the clearcut area and stay to the north of the large watercourse. At 4,000' traverse to the left and connect with the saddle between Phelps and McClain at 4,200'. Follow the ridge to 4,700 feet where it opens into a parklike setting with few trees. A steep SW directed buttress must be crossed at 4,800'. On the other side of this buttress is a steep avalanche chute which will connect you with the summit at 5,162 feet. Five members of our party roped for this section and two were comfortable with kicking steps and using ice axes. The summit was quite windy on this day and since views were non-existent we didn't linger. 8 hours from car to car.

I hadn't hauled the little guy out for a good long walk through the fresh air in some time, so an antsy 3.58098 year old and I decided to drive in to explore some in the Bellevue Wilderness, otherwise known as the Mercer Slough area. We parked at the trailhead and immediately began running down the trail leading south toward the blueberry farm once I told Christopher that there was a huge blueberry farm nearby. Alas, he was greatly disappointed to find the thousands of bushes not only off limits, but depressingly bare of berries in early January! Thus, after nearly having to abort the hike due to early disappointments, we finally pushed on deeper into the slough area. Spotting the first downy woodpecker in a cottonwood tree and gathering of ducks in a small pond got he juices flowing again. There was a huge flock of golden-crowned kinglets to enjoy, seven bushtits, two red-tailed hawks, and Christopher really enjoyed how close we got to a great-blue heron along the slough (""Daddy, why didn't you bring you BIG lens with you?"" Good question....). We crossed the slough/river on the cool bridge, and after a bit came back and hiked across the peat bog areas along the berry fields and back to the start. It was fun jumping on the peat and letting each other feel the ground vibrate from it! The morning was capped off with the excitement of getting to hear and see the train heading north along the tracks that pass along I-405. So if a hike isn't ever in store for the little fellow, I always can have a successful outing if I just make sure he can see a train!

Badly needing a breath of fresh air and SUNSHINE to brighten my spirits after a month of no hiking due to sinus surgery, I headed east hoping to escape the gloppy dark clouds of the west. The sun broke out by Ellensburg and I was well on my way to a great day in the Quincy Wildlife Area. Upon arrival at the north entrance I found that although the area is signed to be open road after 1/1/02 after hunting season, the gate was still closed. Alas, this made for a much more pleasant day of hiking anyhow as I got to slowly hike the road in past Quincy Lake, other lakes, and to Burke Lake. Stands of cottonwoods shined against the brilliantly polarized blue Eastern Washington sky! Each of these lakes was a worthy stop and photography experience in its own right: clumps of lonely grass reeds in deep blue water, cattails lining the shores of each lake, ice patterns in the waters of Burke Lake, etc....

Across from Burke Lake I headed down the unmarked path which takes you to the lip of the canyon that heads to Dusty Lake. Due to the melting snow of the week the three waterfalls pouring into the canyon were spectacular! The large beaver pond below the one falls was smooth and reflecting the basalt cliffs and waterfalls surrounding it, with the beaver lodge keenly placed well across the pond from where I was hiking. The views down the canyon as you cross the creek on a board were fascinating, and slowly Dusty Lake became more of the western scenery. Dropping down suddenly into the shade of the southern canyon walls made the air temperature feel at least 20 degrees colder as I hiked across the ice. But there was still sunshine along a portion of the Dusty Lake shoreline and my did my food taste good, and the photography was terrific! Reflection City!

I hiked back up and spent another 1/2 hour photographing around the waterfalls and beaver pond, and finally started back up for the road just as the sunlight left me for the day as the next approaching front started moving in. I startled a few belted kingfishers along Quincy Lake and a large gathering of quail near a feeding station near the Ancient Lakes trailhead. This turned out to be a better day than had I just hiked into Dusty Lake if I drove in since I now had a beautiful seven mile hike under my belt rather than the short three miles from the ""trailhead"". By the time I was driving home past Cle Elum it was snowing for much of the rest of the drive home, but I hiked in sunshine all day!

Made it to 3600 feet at the base of the meadow without any snow. Got up to almost the top of the rock outcrop, but a steep sidehill and icy snow was enough of a deterrent to decide the turnaround spot. The Bailey Range was out in all its snowy splendor. Any time you can gain 3600 feet in January without risking your life, it's a good day. Couple blowdowns blocking the trail, but no big deal.

I kept hoping the dense fog would lift by the time we climbed the 2000 feet to Mt. Walker's summit (it's at 2800 feet), but it did not. We ate lunch in the mist and remembered all the times we've been up here when we could see the fabulous views of the Olympics and--at the south summit--Puget Sound and the Cascades. But it was a good hike nonetheless,and for this season--a treat to find a trail with a lot of elevation that is not snow covered. In fact, there wasn't a drop of snow anywhere.

Road covered in snow at about 3.5 miles. We parked there and snowshoed up beyond the parking lot. Mixed rain and snow made it impossible to continue to the top. Very steep final approach was subject to avalanche. Probably could make the top with snowshoes, good conditions and a big day of effort. Easy access to road end..

Another beautiful day in the woods. You can park, 1/4 mile East, on a wide spot by the Stilly River.The Marten Creek trail, Really another abandoned road walk, is steep for the first mile. Huff and puff. It was dry. Patchy snow,well compacted, on the last mile.There was no need for snowshoes. Animal tracks, birds were singing. Thnks to those who move branches, big rocks or channel water to keep the trail clear.A couple nice views of Gordon Mt. and Three Fingers. One other party, giggling and cross-eyed with delight. Search for the mines in August. Rained hard on the way down.

Kendall Peaks Lakes 4,400' January 06, 2002

The Trail starts two miles east of Snoqualmie Pass at the Snow-Park at Exit 54 off I-90. The trail is a forest road and easy to follow. Many people come to play and sled at the lower reaches of the trail. The day was overcast, and the forecast was for a front to move through later in the day with the snow level rising to 5,000'.

Doerte and I walked happily along in the three inches of new snow that had fallen during the night. We saw a few parties, but not many considering how close we are to Seattle. After 2 miles we found a track that left the trail and ascended steeply into the forest. We hoped it would eventually join back up with the main route. It was hard work, but fun, to climb the steep slope through the big trees, covered white with snow. All the limbs of the trees hung heavily with snow. The route zig-zagged around the limbs.

Finally, we broke from the forest and climbed a crest to the top of a ridge. We seemed to be on a big hump in the middle of the valley. We knew we must be very close to the Kendall Peak Lakes, but we couldn't tell where they were. All we could see was fog and clouds. We continued down the track and finally stopped for a snack. A woolen solo snowshoer said to continue on 10 minutes and we would see the lake.

It was easy to become disoriented in the fog, and now it started to rain, turning the silky light powder into thick mashed potatoes! At the lower lake we had a good visit with two backcountry snowboarders, the only party we saw besides the woolen solo! We made our way to the middle Lake of the Kendall Peak Lakes, 4,400', on wet snow in a mad rain. Located in a small basin below Kendall Peak, 5,784', the three Kendall Peak Lakes are gorgeous any time of the year.

Once again, Doerte and I were having a typical day in the Pacific Northwest. Snow, rain, and no visibility! The rumored views were no where to be seen. But, it was a good day to field test our gear and see if that Gortex really works! We had a five minute break at the middle lake and then started back down in the rain. We couldn't see anything except the trail in front of us. Losing the trail would be a disaster.

The descent went fast and we were back on the main trail in an hour, and back at the truck in 30 more minutes, chilled and wet. Our gloves and pants were wet, feet, upper-bodies, and heads were dry. 4.5 hours, 1,800' elevation gain, and 9 miles.

A great hike with easy access and great winter scenery Deer creek road is closed to motor vehicles due to snow accumulation. It begins at about 1600 feet and ends at about 3100 feet about 5 miles each way.) We started out on a mixture of gravel and snow which transitioned to putting on the snow shoes within the first mile. We had nearly 4 feet of snow when we ended at the trail head for Lake Kelcema (1/2 mile more would have taken us to the lake, but we decided to quit there so we could finish before dark.) We saw plenty of wildlife tracks but we were too noisy to see any animals. There were only about 12 other people seen in the entire trip We had intermittent rain showers which appeared to be melting the snow quickly. Overall it was a good moderate hike, and down hill all the way home. To get there just follow the Mountain Loop Highway to just before (200 or 300 yards) it's blocked off for the Winter.

Jan 5-6 Hwy 2 to Stevens Pass - park on the left side of the lot, and if going overnight make sure to park in the last 2 rows towards the cabins, of course always ask to make sure you don't get towed. Hike up the trail towards the cabins and veer right after the first cabin. There are plenty of snowshoe tracks to follow, and noticed this morning on our way down that it was groomed for a few hundred feet as well. Follow the switchbacks which are quite wide all the way up to the ridge. There are a few beacon towers or microwave towers along the way as well. For some reason, the orange paintcan guy got to this trail as well. How could you not find your way on this trail' Even with lots of fresh snow it seems impossible to get lost. Anyway, we hiked past Skyline Lake and traversed north to a saddle where we found a good place to setup camp. Due to a cancellation of our climb up Mt Hood this weekend due to 55-80 mph winds at the Tiberline Lodge (elev 5900'), we thought we had to make use of our stuffed paks somewhere! So we dug out the shelter of all shelters (it was a palace) and set up the tent. It was a nice quiet evening with low winds and no snowfall. The lights of the Ski area lit up the valley, and not until 11pm did the snow and wind pick up, but not inside our shelter, it was calm and nice. We awoke at 6am to a gorgeous sunrise and stars, but that did not last long as the air started to get warm and tree bombs started to fall on us. We packed up camp and traversed down to Skyline Lake. From there we left our backs and tried to ascend a small butte at the North end of the lake about 200-300 feet higher. We found ourselves 10 feet below the summit but it was too steep w/o iceaxes so we had to retreat. Nice hike down, with only a few people on the trail. This is an ideal place to go backcountry skiing when there are low avalanche conditions. I will return soon to ski the distance. Photos to come soon at www.nwog.org.

Keechelus Ridge 4900' January 05, 2002

The trailhead is at Exit 62 on I-90, then drive back West a little more than a mile to the Price Creek Snow-Park, 2,800'. The Snow-Park was full of snowmobilers and we wondered if we were at the right place. There was only one other party of snowshoers.

Doerte and I started up the trail at 10 am on hard pack. We followed the forest service road, avoiding the snowmobiles (load and stinky) when they came by. We stayed on Road 124 until it appeared to descend, then headed cross-country up the ridge. It was beautiful in the glades and open areas. The big trees all had big white blankets covering them. The hard pack turned to a few inches of soft power.

By now we knew that the summit ahead of us would be a false one and keep plodding along. The visibility fell to only about 50' as we got above 4,500'. Doerte came upon a couple having lunch at the base of a stand of second growth. They were the only party we encountered since leaving the Trailhead. They had managed to avoid all of the dreaded snowmobiles by traveling crosscountry.

The Keechelus Ridge summit, 4,900', has big radio tower that we could barely see even while standing underneath it! Besides being in a cloud, it was covered in ice. We imagined all the wonderful views and panoramic vistas we would have on a clear day as we added a couple layers for the descent.

We had to be really careful to follow our tracks on the way down to be sure we stayed on route. It was a sea of white powder! The route down through the trees was fast and fun. We were surprised there were no skiers or snowboarders as the snow was perfect.

A great trip, even with the snowmobiles, and without the views. 8 miles, 2,100' elevation gain, over 5.5 hours.

Thanks to the people who put the little foot bridge in at the begining of the trail. I always thought that this was such a nice trail but crossing the stream in the begining was such a hassle when the water was up.

The snow is on and off past the falls. There are a few snow bridges to cross. I went to the lake without snow shoes but put snow shoes on for part of the hike back. I saw some snow falling on the other side of the lake. Allways fun to see.

The White Chuck Road had snow begining at the 4 mile marker, at the 6 mile marker the road has at least 8 inches, and by 7.5 miles we could drive no further. There was a good trail to snowshoe on up to the trailhead, after that ours were the only tracks. We camped at Fire Creek, where there was about 18-24"" of snow with drifts of 3-4 ft in some places. We got up the next morning and started towards Kennedy but turned around at Glacier Creek due to time constraints. At Glacier the snow level was around 20-26"".

Snowshoes are a MUST within 3 miles of the trailhead. Some blowdown, on the road and on the trail.

Pine and Cedar Lakes are located south of Bellingham in the Chuckanut Mountain range. Take the North Samish Lake exit from I5 and continue about 2.5 miles on the Old Samish Road to the signed parking lot and trailhead. Whatcom County Parks have obviously done a lot of work recently on this area since I was last here last Spring. The parking lot (which used to be a mud-hole) has been nicely gravelled and a portable toilet installed. The trail is much improved too, with lots of new run-off pipes and water-bars, etc. The trail is quite steep as it takes off on an old road, going relentlessly upward. At the one mile mark, a brand new section of trail goes off to the left, making some nice switchbacks through a pretty part of the forest I've never seen before. It allows you to avoid one of the steepest sections of the old trail. We went first to Pine Lake at 2.4 miles and then turned back to Cedar Lake (which is the first turnoff, at about 1.9 miles). After eating lunch at a sunny spot on the far side of the lake, we decided to walk around the lake and discovered some ribbons leading up to a brown box (which turned out to be a privy). But the ribbons continued and we kept following them up a small ridge and through then some very boggy areas until we found ourselves after about a half mile back at Pine Lake! But on the far side. The ribbons seem to mark remnants of very old trail, and patches where there is really no trail at all. We retraced our steps back to Cedar Lake and then climbed to the outlooks above the lake, another half-mile. The first one, towards Bellingham is now almost completely obscured by the trees (you used to have a great view!); the second one looks out towards Mount Baker and the Cascades. It was a cloudy day, but there was just enough sunshine to give us a good picture of Mount Baker and the Sisters. The third viewpoint is to the West and the islands in the Sound. It was a great day of hiking--perfect for winter walking without snow.

no snow, hooray!! good workout hike for after school/work. If you can't get out anywhere better, go ahead and go because trail conditions are good.

The recent reports of SUVs stuck on access roads convinced me to not drive all the way to the trailhead. I stopped at about 2300', mile 2.5, on FS 9030. Snowshoes were helpful for traction but not necessary until well past Talapus Lake. I followed the trail north from Talapus toward Ollalie, leaving the trail before the creek crossing and heading up the ridge to the west of Ollalie Lake. This is a shorter route than the trail circling Ollalie and heading toward Mason Lake but is pretty steep. At the top of the ridge I turned west and started up the long eastern ridge of Pratt Mountain. The climb becomes more gradual and there were views down to Talapus and Pratt Lakes as the trees thinned. The visibility was so poor that I couldn't see Bandera or any other nearby peaks, but from other descriptions the view on a clear day is to Rainier and the close part of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The ridge is corniced in spots, and some sections had a thin layer of ice below the new snow, but I had no problem with traction using poles and MSR snowshoes. This route doesn't cross any avalanche paths as far as I could see, but traveling up the ridge to the summit could be dangerous in different snow conditions and would require different equipment and experience with winter backcountry travel. Avalanche danger was listed as low below 5000' today. The ridge flattens out and ends at 5099'. I thought about descending the steeper southwest side of the mountain to the valley above Talapus Lake but decided not to push my luck and I retraced my route. From where I parked, 8 mi RT, 2800', 4hrs. Plan on more time if it's clear and there are views, or if the snow is soft.

Other writeups accurately describe/located the trailhead to this peak. This brief writeup is to give current conditions on a popular hike. The snowshoes were left in the car and that proved to be a good decision. The snow we encountered along the entire hike was firm and crusty. There was a fresh layer of perhaps an inch placed down with todays light precipitation. An ice axe is still needed though as a fall would not be arrested on the upper slopes without it. Actually on this day I didn't even need my gaiters and they stayed unused in the pack. We made quick time on the peak with 4 hrs to ascend and descend.

My favorite hiking partner and I started the New Year by skipping the champagne and taking a beautiful snowshoe trip to, and above ,Source Lake early New Years Day. The trip is easy and so that means LOTS of people. The good news is that most of folks that do this trip don't begin until noon or later. So get there early and try to enjoy some sort of solitude. The climb to the saddle above and between Source and Snow Lake is very steep and difficult. Don,t bring Fido or the out of towners on this part. When we reached the top it was a different environment there. The wind was really blowing and goggles were needed. Check avalanche conditions before attempting this climb! The trip back to the parking lot was quick despite having to dodge the mass of humanity enjoying the first day of 2002. Peace,love,and good hiking to all in this New Year!