Did a mid-week hike today to the Snoquera Palisades, the complete loop combined with White River Trail and Ranger Creek. We started out at the new trailhead parking lot at Camp Shepard off Hwy 410. There's a nice nature walk loop which would be good for children, but if you're heading for the ridge, you might elect to park elsewhere. We climbed Ranger Creek Trail, which is primarily a horse trail, also used by mtn. bikes and hikers. It has an excellent easy grade, following the creek for aways and then heading up through thick forest to the ridge top and a high point of 5200 ft. At the junction with the Snoquera Ridge Trail, there is an old shelter in good condition. A pool of fresh water was there damming up a tiny creek, obviously designed to water horses. We headed up and down the ridge, hitting a few patches of snow and a couple of downed logs, but nothing serious. The trail is in pretty good condition. Some brush has been removed off the grade. The trail primarily traverses the ridge going in and out of forest and pausing at scenic drop-offs. We couldn't see The Mountain today due to low cloud cover. It was actually snowing and then raining on us. The ridge continues to drop steadily, crossing a large pretty creek and then another just before plummeting down a narrow canyon near a lovely waterfall. This trail was not is as good of shape with some minor rockfall and more rocks about to fall on the trail. The worst part, however, was the broken bridge near the bottom of the trail. We had to wade through the creek to get around the unsafe structure. Good summer project for the local boy scouts. We were happy to hit the flats of the White River Trail and made short work of the mile back to the car and the trailhead. Then it was off to Enumclaw and some well deserved dinner. Flower report: Red flowering currant, trillium, wood violet, calypso orchid, Oregon grape, wild strawberry, serviceberry, and one lone paintbrush. Stats: 14 miles, 2600 gain.

After stomping up to Snoquera Falls and some random wanderings on the White River trail, I decided to go find the trail up Ranger Creek. It's unsigned on the highway, but there's a small pullout about 100 yards north of the Buck Creek Recreation Area sign/bridge, which gives access to Skookum Flats and so on. The trail heads up from the highway from here. The trail steeply heads up to meet with the White River trail, and then worked up the south side of Little Ranger Peak. This trail gets much less use than many trails around the area, it certainly felt! It was a forest hike all the way to a little knob about 2.5 miles in, filled with more calypso orchids, moss, and beautiful scenery. Some nice views opened up across the White River Valley toward Sun Top where I turned around, but The Mountain (and much of everything else) was socked in clouds. I turned back here as the winds were sort of scary up that high--not fun under all those trees! From what I can see, there is no snow well up to 4500 feet and higher on most surrounding peaks--amazing! Only the top of the ridge toward Crystal Lakes had snow on it, that being fresh snow too. Here I was all day hiking off of a highway on easy trails...and I saw not a soul. Splendid day in the mountains!

I had a strong need to stretch my legs and escape the pressures of modern life . This trail popped to mind and I was off. I parked at the West Trailhead, about 1 mi W of Camp Sheppard. Headed up the trail and right away I ran into a bridge in serious need of repair. You would have needed crampons to walk across it, it was leaning so bad. Snuck around that and carried on up the trail, a very handsome trail with cedars and firs, good sized ones, and ferns and mosses that the smattering of snow made magical. Soon I came to the stairway (to heaven') and carefully climbed its snowy planks. Phew! I was at the top of the Palisades, about 3200'. The trail wanders to the edge for a lookout over the valley then back inland four times. Make sure you stop at each viewpoint. On a clear day Rainier would be a beauty, big and majestic. But that was not to bee for me. The clouds were hanging at about 6000' so I just saw the river, peeks at the highway, Suntop and various other local peaks. But that was enough. I hit snow at about 3000'. At the top there was 2-4"" on the trail, nice and crunchy to walk on. For the most part I had no use for the snowshoes on my pack, but crossing the second clearcut section (4500') it got deep and I put them on for a half mile or so. I saw faint evidence of old footprints in the snow, but nothing fresh. I felt like I was blazing new ground. Got to the shelter at the junction with Ranger Creek trail and took a long break, drank some coffee, and soaked up a few sun rays. Headed back down the Ranger Crk trail. It had a lot of fresh snow over a fairly hard crust. I was glad for my instep crampons. It was beautiful, white and lonely as I zipped down the trail. I came out at the Buck Creek bridge, crossed the river and walked down the Skookum Flats trail to the suspension bridge, crossed and walked down the highway (ugh) for 1.5 mi to my car. All in all this was a perfect hike. I saw no one else all day, the hiking was free of major trouble, and the scenery was inspiring. 13 mi total , about 3000' elev gain.