Esmeralda Basin (Esmerelda), County Line & Lake Ann — Monday, Oct. 27, 2014

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

What an amazing day to be out in the Teanaway! Looking for a dog friendly hike we hadn’t yet done, I opted for Esmerelda Basin today. Having done Lake Ingalls 6 or 7 times, I’d always imagined Esmerelda to be the less desirable trail in that area (that sounds harsh, but I just love Ingalls so much!) Boy was I wrong - with a fresh layer of snow and lots of sun, this too is a beautiful hike! Unlike every other time I’ve been to the Ingalls/Esmerelda trailhead, today there was only one other car in the parking lot. It was really cold (37 degrees at the trailhead), but a beautiful sunny day and I quickly heated up as we got going and peeled off my long sleeves. Hit the trail a few minutes before 1:00 and snow appeared as soon as we passed the junction for Ingalls/Longs Pass, quickly changing from a faint dusting along the trail to covering the trail. It was much snowier than I expected, and soon we were hiking through sections of snow 3-4” deep, mixed with frozen water runoff and intermittent bare spots of muddy trail (no need for traction devices just yet). One downed tree to climb over and one to crawl under, both manageable, along with other small limbs and debris, probably from the wind storms over the weekend. After climbing under the downed tree, it was smooth sailing from here up to the junction of the County Line trail where we cut over to head to the ridge above Lake Ann. The snow continues to get deeper as you make your way up County Line and was close to foot deep in places as we made the last ½ mile push up to the ridge (again still mixed with rock, so snowshoes wouldn’t have been that helpful – although poles might have been). Once we reached the ridge, the combo of wind and a bit of shade made it too cold to sit still. Layers went back on and after a few pics, we headed back down. As we made our way off the ridge I spotted a couple lone larches hanging out in the snow, still sort of intact, and that made the day for me! We kept moving as quickly as possible to stay warm and beat the setting sun, and made it back to the parking lot by 5:00. As far as the drive, the pot holes (now giant mud puddles) are pretty bad for the first 3 miles, but the rest of #9737 to the trailhead is pretty smooth and almost looks as though it was graded recently? I was in that same area two weeks prior and it seemed to be a lot worse then, but maybe that’s my imagination. :)