MOST USEFUL ITEM: Snow is not bad. It's a great time for Jolly, if you can fit the hike into a day. Views magnificent. The bit of extra snow work is so worth it for the snow beauty.
HOURS IN THE DAY: I'd wondered if I might be finishing with headlamp, given those 14 miles, and Seattle sunrise/sunset being 7:45 am/6 pm. No problema. I was on the trail at 8 am, done at 5:30. (And at 72, I'm not fast.)
SNOW: Plenty of snow to see in the hills driving to the TH. (My first horse camp TH.) Freezing at the start, a little ice, the frozen trail dirt crunching. I didn't know what to expect higher up ... After an hour or so, all the snow in the trees was exhilirating. Made that 5 mile segment to the pass so much better. Minor encroachment of snow on the trail had no impact for the first 4 miles. Somewhere in the last mile, as the snow got a bit deeper, I broke out the trekking poles for slip insurance. At the pass: sun! bare ground for a lunch loll. The snow became more of a hike presence in the segment from pass to summit. Never very deep (and with that party of 5, the boot path is done, until it is buried again). Poles sufficed for traction; I never wanted microspikes.
VIEWS: This was Saturday. I think it snowed MTuW, maybe Th, maybe F. There were views everywhere, including Stewart, with that evanescent etching of fresh snow on the rock.
ANOTHER PARTY: The only others I met were two guys on something like electric mountain bikes, catching up to me from above when I was may 90 minutes from done. Pleasant pair. I don't know if the bikes are illegal on this stretch, or whether even very careful riders damage the trail. They went slow. Maybe they were doing some loop out of the SnoPark parking. Following, I saw a lot of their tread marks, but no sign they'd spun or torn anything up.
It's a wonderful world.
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