The pup and I earned our stripes on this one. Lots of snow on this trail as of Saturday 10/19 and it's really a snowshoe hike at this point.
I was pleased to read a trip report from a few days prior that the road to this trail was open and I jumped at the opportunity to get this hike in before it would close again. I decided I would make a loop out of it and take the PCT down to Pass Creek Trail and back to the parking lot via North Fork Skyhomish Trail.
Beckler Road is in great shape until it becomes FR 65 then its lots of rain filled muddy potholes, not terrible but it requires a slow speed.
I got there a little after 8 am and it was raining, I was the only one there. The trail was wet and muddy and the rain eventually gave way to snow as I climbed higher. By the time I was 5 miles in it was 2 ft deep and I was considering turning back but ultimately decided I would skip Benchmark Mountain and head for the PCT.
At 6 miles it was waist deep and snowing relatively hard and crystallized my plan to continue on as gps was showing I would begin losing elevation soon. There were a lot of animal tracks although I couldn't quite tell what animal made them, some of them looked kind of like rabbit tracks. After battling the waist deep stuff for another half hour the trail began to descend and with it so did the snow level.
I stopped to have lunch under a relatively snow free patch under a group of trees. It was the perfect spot with a nice downhill view, I didn't stay too long as it was still snowing and getting later. Going downhill was fun, I glisaded where I could until I reached Pass Creek.
The Pass Creek part of the trek was much easier, only about 6 inches of snow and it was intermittent between tree cover. Crossing the North Fork Skykomish River sucked. I wasted a bunch of time trying to find a viable crossing. I was so happy that I had managed to keep my feet dry that I wasn't inclined to just jump right in. There is no bridge and not enough rocks above the water line to step across plus everything else was snow covered. I eventually settled on a fallen tree. It was not particularly wide but I figured if I went nice and slow I'd be fine. I made almost all the way across when I slipped right off and ended up on my butt in the river. I was completely soaked and wishing I had just walked through instead. My dog had a much easier hop, skip and a jump across.
I had hoped to make it out before nightfall but it was not to be and I ended up walking the last few miles out by headlamp. Fortunately I was moving fast enough that I managed to stay warm even though it was cold and I was soaked. I was a little surprised how much snow was at the parking area. I had to wipe the truck down before I could take off. Still glad I went, I'd never hiked in those conditions before and it was a learning experience.
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