With sun in the forecast, reports of a new dusting of snow overnight and Skyline’s proximity to home, my daughter and I made Skyline our first ‘solo’ snowshoeing adventure and were not disappointed. We were on the trail by 11:15am and, although we wanted an earlier start, morning cloud cover lifted and lent to spectacular views all around. At times there was minor congestion on the trail, particularly with a couple youth groups. One group was sliding down the trail on plastic bags as we were ascending. This did make the trail a bit more compacted but they were courteous and enjoying their descent, and there is plenty of area to allow passage. The trail is easy to traverse, with my daughter ‘running’ up quite a few stretches to increase her workout. I, on the other hand, stopped to take in the views more frequently, aka catching my breath.
This is a pretty steady and steep climb, and we made Skyline Lake at 12:45pm where we stopped for lunch and to “take it in”. There were folks set up for camping overnight, with more arriving as the day went on. It was a bit windy so we put our jackets back on to help block the wind. There were a number of dogs off-leash, with none coming near us as we ate or continued on our trek. A couple dogs got into a brief scuffle until an owner broke it up. Please leash your pets. After lunch we continued to the rock formations, a fairly short hike through trees on the NW side of the lake and up an additional elevation gain of about 100’. We arrived around 1:30pm and the views of Glacier Peak Wilderness to the north and Alpine Wilderness south were, as my daughter described, as though we were in a dream. There was another youth group here with ‘Camp Robbers’ (Gray Jay) pestering them for food, which they obliged unfortunately. There were tracks going past the rock formations of a more adventurous snowshoer, however we stuck to taking in the views and since the group was leaving, waited for them to get out in front of us before we headed back down.
We made it back to the trailhead around 3:30pm. As we had a fairly steady and steep climb, so goes the descent which was a bit rough on one of my knees (getting old is a treat, especially reminders of your youth and injuries sustained). Fresh trekkers we’re heading up, some with snowshoes and many in hiking boots. One overnight camper on her way up took one step in creating a post hole, got out of it then created another with her next step. She had what appeared to be quite a bit of weight in her pack and I’m sure snowshoes (which she had in her gear) would have prevented this. Post holes are something to watch for.
Some additional notes:
1) Parking lots were marked as ‘Full’; we were able to park in the upper lot at Yodelin since we hade 4WD. Be sure to pull completely off the highway when scoping out parking lot availability.
2) Shuttle service is efficient. In hindsight, would have dropped one of us off with gear close to trailhead to save room for other shuttlers. You can tell the lot attendant you’re doing a drop-off only.
3) Leash pets and clean up their waste. There were piles left alongside the trail and I’m assuming these were from assorted dogs seen on trail. Bag it up, pack it out. Please.
4) Respect wildlife. Don’t feed them.
5) We had cell phone signal the entire trip. I didn’t realize this until I heard my phone ringing in my pocket, ‘disrupting’ my time with nature (I didn’t answer and promptly shut ringer off; we opt to leave phone powered for pictures, and the novice status of our snowshoeing adventures).
Comments