Cooper River Snowshoe — Saturday, Mar. 5, 2011

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

I led my 4th Saturday Snowshoe of the season for the Cascadians today to the Cooper River Trail, a new destination for me. At least that was the plan. As we started out from the road by the old guard station we were a little ways behind a group of 8 or so Seattle Mountaineers. When we got to the trailhead at the end of the campground, assuming they were also going up the Cooper River Trail, we just followed their track, but after 15 min or so when we kept heading north rather than curving west along the river I began to suspect that we were generally following the Waptus River Trail rather than the Cooper River Trail. Eventually I caught up to them & they confirmed that we were not on the Cooper River Trail. They were just out for exercise & to avoid avalanches. As the snow was deep (the Cle Elum paper said they had received half of their total winter snowfall in the past week) and they were breaking a very nice trail, we decided to follow them rather that backtrack & break our own trail. About noon we came to a small, open knoll on the hillside and stopped for lunch. After an hour or so we returned the way we came. Back near the river we found where some others behind us had started following our tracks, then realized the mistake & headed up the river. Next time I'll know. We went over to look at the river, which was beautiful, then walked through the campground back to the car. The day was supposed to be cloudy with a 50% chance of precip, but it just got nicer & nicer and was mostly sunny by the time we were back to the Cle Elum River bridge. Though we didn't end up going where I had planned & never knew exactly where we were or where we were going, we still had a nice walk through the forest without having to break trail. Under the circumstances, what more could we ask for.