Road snow-free to within 1/4 mi. of trailhead. Trail completely under snow. A notice says, ""Rocky Creek bridge"" is out. I'm not sure which crossing this refers to (Trail 603 or 603.1?). No bridge necessary on the lower crossing (Trail #603), a nice triple-log crossing just upstream from presumed bridge location. Also an adzed log crossing downstream from this but hard to reach due to snow. If the missing bridge is upstream at the Scott Paul Trail #603.1 crossing, we didn't go there. White-out conditions. Map & compass all the way to the lookout. Snow excellent, firm, no post-holing. Typical Cascade summit view. This trailhead is likely to be a zoo. Main access to south routes on Baker. There was a mountaineering class of over a dozen cars, perhaps 30-40(!) people, going up the Railroad Grade to the Easton Glacier. Also a snowmobile trail, unless I'm mistaken. We were spared.

The problem is that every spring I forget. I forget the serenity of solitude, or the neutral taste of clean air and water. I forget the feeling of civilized tensions/small concerns, unraveling in my mind; the absence of that background hum of stress we all learn to live with. I also forget the amount of effort it takes to get anywhere worthwhile: the decisions, the route-finding, concern about snow stability, and of course all that sweaty heavy breathing. Since snow-pack is nearly 100% of normal in this area, the dog and I wanted to get an early start on good firm crust, avoiding snowmobilers in the bargain. SnowPark pass is no longer required on FS 13. I was able to drive to 2700’, or about 3 miles from the TH. Conditions were good and I managed to keep the snowshoes on the pack, although there were areas where I sank past my knees. Ceili and her pack had no problem. There was about 5’ in Schriebers Meadow and at least 10’ on the Butte. They are still hitting pretty hard up there with the petrol-based recreation. Around 10 each morning the landscape would drone with the sound of machines. Courteous bunch, they are. Most of them would pack home their Coors lite empties and cigarette wrappers. And the only yelling they did was at each other after shutting down their engines, ironically because they had been deafened in pursuit of quiet open space. The weather was good enough for a season-opener: little wind, moderate temps above freezing, mostly clear. Clouds descended late the second night and freezing rain began by 5a. The spell was broken and we departed under softer snow conditions. I needed snowshoes much of the way out. New snow began falling lending a festive aire to our hike out. We encountered one posse of 5 machines, and gagged on their fumes for about a half mile. Two dozen more were on the way in as we arrived at the truck. It was good to get re-acquainted with things beyond my “four walls”. And despite the aches and unknowns, I am looking forward to a season full of such things. Happy Trails.

Beautiful sunny day to hike up to the lookout. Parking lot was over crowded with cars parking down the road. Sign at the trailhead say bridges removed for the winter. I continued to the Rocky creek and attempted to cross. Someone has placed a log over the first arm of the creek which I crossed no problem. The log on the second arm was a lot riskier. Since I had my 2 year old on my back I decided not to attempt it, but many people made it no problem. I talked to some forest service people working on the trail about the early removal of bridges and they said they were removed early because early termination of contacts (this week is the last week) and the forest staff had to prep the bridges for helicopter removal. I wonder where all the user fee money is going if they have to remove bridges before summer is over. Headed over to Watson Lakes.

An early start (6:40 Kirkland, 9 on the trail) paid off today as we beat the mid-day clouds piling up in the sky. Finding few ripe berries to munch at the beginning, we made good time to the river crossing. The first channel is dry; the second has a I-Beam bridge with rails. The flow looked low enough to cross without a bridge, but on the return the water was muddy, fast and twice the flow. Switchbacking up to the meadows, there were few flowers. In the meadow itself, some lupine, lots of Partridge Foot and heather. We thought we were perhaps a couple of weeks too late for the good flowers; the ranger said they were just starting. We traipsed up to the lookout, first time I haven't had to cross a snowpatch on the way. During lunch we watched descending climbers as well as the cloud build up. Damp backs, sun behind clouds and a good wind made a warm fleece vest a lunch time necessity, though the sun was hot when out from behind clouds. Another good day in the mountains.

The road is snow-free to the Schriebers Meadows sign about 1/4 mile before the end. In spite of only about 6 inches of snow, I still had to share the area with 2 determined snowmobilers. The snow gets deeper near the creek so I had to use snowshoes. The log across the creek was dry so it wasn't too hard to cross, but it would be when wet. The snow is disappearing fast and I expect most of it will be gone around the meadows in the next week.