Attempted to do the White Chuck River Road near Bedal, WA. Parked at road start on Mt Loop Rd.
Definitely needed snowshoes, but the snow was awful in a way that made the hike slow going and not too fun. Nice day though, and was only wearing my t-shirt. Took an hour to get to the wash-out at 1.7 miles. Attempted to go around using the bypass trail but it kinda petered out 3/4 of the way and got stuck with my snowshoes attempting to climb over trees fallen branches etc. When I switched to yak-trax, I just fell through the snow and couldn't make any more progress to the other side. Well I could have, but I lost interest, knowing the hike wasn't gonna get any more fun. Two people in cross-country skies made it to the other side (I was following their sink holes on the bypass trail), and I think if I had those I would have continued on. But I was wearing only hiking boots and my feet were getting soaked falling through the snow and I was getting muddy climbing on the mud patches that were exposed.
Between getting stuck on the bypass trail and walking back, it took me two hours to get back to my car.
Strange thing I noticed was that at certain points along the road, there were these air pockets of really warm air that made it feel like spring or early summer. Wicked awesome, IMHO.
Anyway, I think i will wait to late spring when the road melts and the bypass trails gets cleaned up a bit and the river drops and then I will mountain bike the whole trail as conditions allow me.
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