Nordic Pass - Hyak — Friday, Nov. 27, 2020

For this day-after-Thanksgiving trip, we met at the parking area near the Silver Fir Lodge (the Silver Fir Lodge parking lot was closed) and put on our snowshoes at the forest entrance to the cross over trail heading south to the Nordic Pass trail. Here there was a packed trail and a few water crossings that required wide strides to cross. Deeper snow will probably solve the later. After crossing the bridge over Hyak Creek, we went off-trail through untrodden snow to progress uphill. Occasionally crossing other's snowshoe tracks. At Hyak Lake, we were unsuccessful in finding a passage on the north side due to too much open water but found a route south of the lake. From there, headed uphill through the trees, more or less straight west to Grand Junction. Had lunch at Grand Junction with only 4 snowboarders passing by downhill on FR9070. We continued uphill via FR9070 to the top of the Silver Fir chair lift, then made out way downhill along the south edge of the ski slope. Here there were several open, no-snow soggy areas to cross. Total trip = 4 miles, ascent 1040'