Got to trail head about 11:30 - plenty of parking. Trail is snow free. A few small blow downs and a bit of mud, but no major problems. The view makes it worth while. Trail is full of folks wearing killer cotton and carrying nothing....

Who would have thunk? Wanting to avoid the craziness anywhere near a mountain pass, Jim K and I figured that heading north to Oyster Dome -just a couple of miles as the crow or seagull flies from Puget Sound - would mean little, if any snow. As soon as we took Exit 240 off of I-5 and headed west towards the trailhead (turn left on Barrel-something road - less than a mile from the freeway; then you turn right in .6 miles on the Blanchard Hill Road) there was slippery snow on the road. We opted to go only about a mile or so up the road to the lower parking lot, since there was probably about a 1/2 foot of snow on the road and, basically, we are wussies. The weather was predicted to be scattered showers basically through the day. Well, there were some clouds around - but it continued to clear and was a beautiful day. It was about 34 degrees when we started at the lower trailhead about 9:45 a.m. There were two other guys who showed up - they had parked further down the road, not wanting to get stuck in the snow higher up. You walk about 300' feet up the road to the actual start. Right from the beginning, there was a lot of snow on the trail. It's about a mile walk from the lower parking lot via the trail to the upper parking lot - that was pretty much snow covered - probably just as well that we hoofed it to here. We turned right at the sign to head toward the Incline trail (planned to make this a loop and would come back the Lily/Lizard Lake route). The start of our outbound route would be on road and would continue about a mile - only saw ski tracks - no one else had been along here for awhile. It already was starting to be an absolutely glorious day although we would spend most of the day in the trees - this would not have been one of Trail Pair/K's favorite routes! lol We reached the trailhead to start up the Incline/Alternate Incline trail - it's a pretty obvious left turn off of this logging road. You don't run into the actual trail juncture between Incline and Alternate Incline until you are about 50 yards up the trail. The snow is pretty substantial right away. We had decided not to take our snowshoes - thinking that the snow ""couldn't be THAT deep"" hmmm (for more pictures - go to www.nwhikers.net for the Oyster Dome report) We continued our trek - heading through heavily flocked trees - that were occasionally - no - frequently dripping or dropping snow-bombs on us. I had never been on this side of Oyster Dome - only hiked it from the Chuckanut side. Jim had only been this way once - and that wasn't in snow - and, we conveniently left the map in the car. So we weren't absolutely sure of the route - and we were pretty much breaking trail the whole way. All was fine, except for the time when Jim was sure we had missed the turn to Lizard Lake - but there hadn't been any trail markers. Not to let a crummy little trail sign stop us - we headed out on what looked to be a possible trail/old railroad grade - well, that turned into about a 1/2 mile slog through nearly waist deep (at least for me - and I was in the lead) snow. We abandoned this plan fairly quickly and headed back to the main trail and continued on - even though it didn't seem as steep as Jim remembered it. Finally, we ran into some trail signs that answered our questions about ""Where the heck are we?"" So, we decided to take the Lizard Lake trail - good decision. We returned to the main trail again and headed to Lily Lake - we had yet to see any sign that said anything about Oyster Dome. Undaunted, we continued on towards Lily - passing a sign that identified Max's short cut - but we weren't headed in that direction - we headed to Lily. After a quick visit we connected back to the main trail - where we finally saw a sign that gave us some hope that we were on the right trail. We crossed a creek once and then came to an unmarked junction - the trail coming up from the left (West) was the trail from Chuckanut. Fortunately, the trail ahead up to Oyster Dome was broken by others - so I was off duty. We crossed the creek again and started heading up - not too steep - and probably a 1/2 mile from the junction - but here is what we were waiting for - breaking out of the trees into a wonderful overlook - looking to the south and west. Spectacular. There was one solo woman (on her way down) and three folks/two dogs just getting ready to head down. All four had come up from the Chuckanut side. We enjoyed the views and the great weather - had our lunch - by now it was about 1:45 p.m. - and then decided to head back down. On our way, we passed a whole bunch of folks - in varying kinds of attire - heading up. Lots of tennis shoes; even a guy in knee-length shorts. I doubt that anyone expected this much snow at the top - but the trail was well-beaten and the snow was still soft enough so it wasn't slick (if it gets cold tonight, it will be awful!) We decided to head back to the Lily Lake junction and take what we believed to be the loop back down to the upper parking area. It seemed to be right - but we started to get concerned when the route continued to head west - instead of east like we thought it should. Finally, two women were coming up the trail and said that we were on the right route - but we were still doubtful - because we could see Puget Sound! We were really getting a little concerned. But, after about 2.5 miles the trail took a hairpin turn east and we felt a little more assured. The trail also started losing snow - and there was little snow on the trees by now. As we got closer to upper parking lot, we got one last great view to the south. It did look like some weather was moving in - maybe today turned out to be the better day of the weekend after all. We got back to the upper parking lot - there were now two cars there - regular ol'cars - they had no trouble getting up the road. The trek back from the upper lot to the lower lot seemed to take forever - but we were back to the car before 4:00 p.m. A great choice on a day when other snow options weren't as promising. And, Gus' new haircut seemed to keep the snowballs to a minimum! Stats (only a guess - but fairly reliable) 11 miles; 1800' gain. Great day!!

Finally, a sunny day! To take advantage of the rare warming rays, we hiked to Oyster Dome on Blanchard Mountain. From the upper Blanchard trailhead, we walked the logging road to the Incline Trail, then followed that steep trail up the hill. The Incline Trail was in poor condition with numerous blowdowns, mudholes, and running water on the tread. In fact, the entire Blanchard Mountain seemed saturated with water, with creeks running just about everywhere. There was much more snow than usual on the upper part of the the mountain, one to two feet in places. The Incline Trail eventually leveled out and followed an old logging railroad grade, passing a turnoff to Lizard Lake and later, Lily Lake. Heavy gloppy snow and frequent mudholes covered the trail around Lily Lake. You will need well-sealed boots if you want to keep your feet dry around here. The Oyster Dome side trail was relatively dry. As usual, a crowd of happy hikers festooned the summit, enjoying the sun and fantastic vista over the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands. We returned via Max's Shortcut, which was muddy but free of blowdowns. Eventually this trail connected to the main Lily Lake Trail, which in turn led us to the parking area. All in all, a nice day of hiking despite all the mud.

Oyster Dome has some large blowdown in the middle third of the trail but no bushwacking required. A nice workout as always.

Lower section of the trail (PNT portion) has been cleared of blowdowns. Upper portion still has some, including a fairly annoying one about 2/3 of the way through the hike. No other obstacles except a little mud.