Our hike along the Big Creek Upper Loop turned out to be quite a wintry adventure!
I knew the peninsula had gotten lots of snow over the last couple days, so initially, I thought Lena Lake might be a fun option. But the road was impassable a couple miles after leaving Highway 101, so we turned the car around and drove to Big Creek. About a dozen cars were parked on the shoulder, so we did the same and donned our snowshoes.
At first, the packed snow was easy and fun to navigate. Our group (3 people and a dog) traveled clockwise along the loop. After about a mile and a half, most other groups must have doubled back because the tracks thinned out considerably. A couple wearing hiking boots and gaiters passed us moving clockwise around the loop. So we were mostly following their boot prints from miles 1.5 to 4.5. And the snow got quite deep! Because it was fresh, our snowshoes did an okay job, but they weren't made for such deep snow. In unpacked stretches of the trail, I was probably sinking about 18 inches or more into the snow with each step. Still, we certainly had an easier time slogging along than if we'd just had hiking boots. (Serious kudos to those other folks we saw!)
Because this trail was Plan B, we'd gotten a later start. And because the trail hadn't been broken, we wound up back at the car around dusk. All told, it took us 3.5 hours to hike the loop. It was a lot of work, and plenty of fun, for just a few miles of hiking! Still, I'm glad we got to enjoy the beautiful snow and (relatively) warm winter weather.
Comments