Gorgeous day. A little foggy starting out in the lowlands (even on Mt. Queen Anne) - but clear at Snoqualmie Pass. Jim K and I agreed a moderate snowshoe was in order since daughter #2 was out on her first snowshoe trip with new 'shoes for her birthday. BF Mike borrowed the Tubbs. Sadie and Clover were ready for anything. Not many folks at the Hyak parking lot considering it was 9:00 a.m. when we got there. We walked up to the start of the Nordic Pass trail - not much of a wall to crawl over - but the snow was deep to start at the creek crossing. Creek crossing was pretty easy. The snow wasn't as deep as the last time HJ and I did Nordic Pass in March '06. Although Opus and friends had been here earlier in the week - there wasn't a trace of their trench. There was perhaps 2' of new snow. But Jim remembered much of the early part of the trail, even without benefit of visible blue diamonds. For the most part, however, we were able to find the diamonds and being polite, everyone allowed me to go first (huffing and puffing my way along). We made it up to the powerlines without much difficulty. We continued on (the blue diamond trail is a little west of where you come up onto ""I-90"" and just before you reach the next set of poles) and headed toward the meadow that leads to the lake. At the edge of the lake, we hit the Atlas Snowshoe track again. We stopped for a few photos at the Lake and then continued on the blue diamond trail -Katie's keen eyes kept finding the blue diamonds. About a 1/2 mile or so from the lake you reach a groomed road - from here the diamond following is a little dicey - but HJ and I remembered the basic route - and you can see Nordic Pass to the South - we wandered along the road for a little bit . . . then Katie spotted a blue diamond and we were headed back into the woods for the last mile to Nordic Pass. We followed some cross country ski tracks and skirted Egg Leg, and headed back to where we found some blue diamonds. But Katie was running out of steam, so we stopped about 1/2 mile short of the Pass, sat in the sun and had some lunch. It was lovely - brisk, but no wind. After a nice lunch, down we headed back to the car. It took us about 3 hours up and a little more than an hour back. Lovely day for a showshoe. HJ is headed back on Sunday with Trail Pair and Silly Traveler. They'll appreciate a nice trench and likely will get close to the summit of Mt. Catherine. (trip taken on Saturday, Dec. 2)
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