Lodge Lake Snowshoe Hike

Christmas Day 
December 2014

A bit of blue sky near Lodge Lake

Finally Snoqualmie Pass is getting some snow - not enough to open the ski areas but plenty to provide a winter hiking opportunity. Since we did not get started on the trail until 1215, we were surprised to find the trail untracked after a short distance. (We passed a family group returning from a brief foray into the forest.) Once through the woods we got into the deeper snow of the ski slopes and put on our snowshoes. The trail was reasonably easy to follow; someone had been through there a day or two ago and the packed-down snow had not been totally drifted over. Near Beaver Lake we guessed wrong and followed a snowmobile track up along the east side of the stream until we had to cross it to reach the real trail (part of the Pacific Crest Trail) on the other side. We used a drift and some bushes to get across the stream and then crossed a small inlet on ice before reaching the trail. Once we were in the forest, full of tall firs covered in a thick coating of newly fallen snow, the depth of snow on the ground decreased quickly to just a few inches and we were able to stash our snowshoes behind a convenient tree. Much of the rest of the 3/4 mile downhill to the lake was

Winter shadows and Guye Peak

on the gravel trailbed and across several unfrozen streams. We passed our 1430 turnaround time before we found the cutoff to the lake, but not by much. We made up for it by not stopping for lunch, or any sit-down breaks. With the low cloudbase there was not much to see except the frozen lake. The lodge built by the Mountaineers in the 1900s had long since burned down. On the way back we saw that someone had come in behind us on snowshoes and had stopped when the trail became more rocks than snow. We didn't replace our snow shoes until we had climbed to the 3500 ft high point on the ridge above Beaver Lake and had started down. Instead of retracing our route through the woods to the trailhead, we left the trail above the parking lot and went right down through the now-thinning crowd of sledders and other snow-players. It was 1615 before we reached the car and the sun had already set. Four hours to complete a three-mile snowshoe hike seemed a bit much but we got plenty of exercise and a good dose of winter scenery.

Sourdough Gap Hike

10 November 2014

C.J. crossing Sourdough Gap

 C.J. and I started off looking at the hike to Crystal Lake from Hwy 410 at 3500 ft climbing 2600 ft to the lake in three miles. Somehow that didn't sound like enough of a fun-to-effort ratio so we looked at starting much higher - like over 5000 ft at Chinook Pass - with a gain of 1100 ft in about four miles. The views were reported to be excellent. What we didn't count on was the snow that fell the night of the 9th...

G in snow at trailhead

We got an early-for-us start at 0730 and reached the trailhead parking lot around 0930. Beyond the turnoff to Crystal Mountain we started seeing a dusting of snow on the roadside. By the time we were climbing to Cayuse Pass, the snow was deep enough that it had been plowed off the road. 410 over Chinook Pass was icy but it had been sanded (unlike the parking lot (5400 ft) which was glare ice). One car in the lot indicated that there was someone who had gotten an earlier start. Snow depth was 4-5 inches and I was guessing that it would be deeper the higher we went, so we strapped our relatively light snowshoes to our packs [Relatively light compared to the ash and gut Green Mountain bearpaws we had sold only a few years ago].

Shadows at Sheep Lake

The trail paralleled the road along a steep slope for a mile and a half then climbed through forest to the partly frozen Sheep Lake (5800 ft) at 2.1 miles.I was pretty surprised that it had been so easy to get to the lake considering the trail was covered with snow and there were only two tracks ahead of us. But the snow had not gotten much deeper and we had not needed our snowshoes. The next section of the trail climbed 700 ft or so in 1.4 miles to Sourdough Gap at 6425 ft. We had a glimpse of the top of Rainier from near the Gap and good views of Naches and Yakima Peaks as well as the broad, U-shaped valley of the American River. But it was clear that we would have to traverse the steep slope on the backside of Sourdough Gap if we wanted

Rainier from lunch spot above Crystal Lake

a good view of Rainier. Much of the snow had slid or blown off the slope, but the trail was deep in wind-blown snow. We followed the tracks for a while, postholing with every other step. Finally we put on our snowshoes and then it went a bit easier for the quarter mile or so to

Gray Jay, this one was not a camp robber

the next ridge. Beyond that we found a great view to the west which included most of Mt. Rainier. We stomped a platform in the snow and had lunch in the sunshine and calm wind. We finished up just as the dark shadow from a crag to the south reached us.

The tracks of the people in front of us did not follow the steep trail down to Crystal Lake as we had expected. Instead they (and two other people) took the Pacific Crest Trail to Crystal Mtn ski area. We used our snowshoes to

C.J. at Sheep Lake

return to Sourdough Gap, then removed them. Once on the sunny side, the snow had softened up but as the day waned and the sun sank behind some clouds it started to cool off again. We left the Gap at 1350 and reached the car almost two hours later (It had taken three hours to climb to the col). The parking lot was even slipperier than before and I took a fall before figuring it out. C.J. had been doing really well both up and down, but her feet were still causing serious pain especially later in the day. This will be her last hike before another round of foot surgery to release the tension on the tendons in two other toes.

I drove carefully down Chinook Pass as the sun set. There won't be many more days before the pass is closed for the winter. We stopped for hot chocolate at Wapiti Woolies in Greenwater and ran into Harold Locke. We got home some time after 1730. Good thing we had some leftovers for dinner because neither of us felt like cooking.

Blue Lake - North Cascades Snowshoe Hike

27 April, Monday - When the sun came up it was shaded by clouds and the wind had picked up so it wasn't as warm as we had hoped it would be. Puffy coats and wind pants kept us warm enough to eat breakfast and we soon were packed up - no dew either night meant the tent was almost dry - except for part of the floor that was sitting in a puddle resulting from over-energetic lawn sprinklers. After a couple of quick stops for gas and for depositing the funds from the fly-in we headed north and up the Methow valley. As we began to climb beyond Mazama, we encountered more and more snow on the roadside until it was higher than the car. About a mile west of Washington Pass we stopped at the small pullout that had been plowed for the Blue Lake Trailhead. We swapped our flying gear for winter hiking/snowshoeing equipment and climbed the snowbank to get to the actual trailhead. We had a perfectly good map but the summer trail was totally obscured by the feet of snow so we followed some old ski tracks in the general direction of where we thought (and the GPS showed) the lake should be. The first half mile or so was heavily forested but not too steep, then we hit a wide avalanche chute. Trees were bent over and covered and there was a lot of wreckage strewn around. We stayed near the edge and started climbing pretty steeply up, then it got even steeper. Clearly the summer trail (2.2 mi) took a much less direct route than our 0.75 mile beeline (gaining 1200 ft). The new, smaller snowshoes allowed us to traverse the slope when it wasn't too steep or too firm. After crossing a stand of trees we climbed another avalanche chute, this time using the snowshoe crampons to "frontpoint" straight up. One more tree-covered ridge stood between us and the lake, so we climbed that as well to where we could look down at the snow and ice-covered, narrow tarn at about 6200 ft. I didn't mention that the views had been getting progressively better and better. We could look back behind us to the north to the mountains across the North Cascades Highway, and to the east we could see towering over us Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires. We picked a suitably scenic spot for lunch and rested for a while before tackling the descent. Neither of us were sure how to proceed - snowshoe down?, slide on the snowshoes? Take off the 'shoes and glissade? or "heel down". We tried all four and the best method for the day's conditions was to just walk straight down plunging the heel in on each step. We were able to get almost all the way to the car before starting to sink more than a few inches into the snow. The rest of the drive down the North Cascades Highway was suitably scenic with waterfalls, distant mountains and mountain lakes. We stopped for gas at Costco in Burlington and for some groceries and a sandwich at Safeway and were home around 2030 - a good night for a soak in the hot tub. Tomorrow we've got a lunch date with our tax preparer and her co-conspirator, Bill Beck at Easy Joe's in North Bend (a reincarnation of Robertiellos, then Gaston's).

Emerald Lake

3 April, Friday- C.J. thought her knee felt better today but not good enough to snowshoe. So I went off by myself again while she worked on scrapbooking, Spanish lessons and yoga. The weather was supposed to be stormy starting this afternoon so I got a sort-of early start to Bear Lake trailhead. It was snowing very lightly when I left the condo and snowing pretty hard at Bear Lake, but without the gusty winds and low temperatures of our last hike there. I talked with a couple who were going to ski to Bierstadt Lake and considered going that way myself but then a whole crowd of snowshoers headed that way. I took the left fork and went towards Nymph Lake again. After a hundred yards on the packed trail I removed my snowshoes and didn't put them back on until I was beyond Dream and climbing toward Emerald. I passed a couple just after walking across the frozen lake and found there were still tracks ahead of me but snowshoes were definitely useful. The snow continued falling the whole hike and when I reached Emerald Lake, it was shrouded by the snowfall. Up ahead skiers were just visible on the slopes of the cirque above the lake; the last two snowshoers had stopped for lunch at the lake edge. This was the first time this winter that I had seen any marauding birds gather hoping for handouts. There were several mountain chickadees which were pretty aggressive and a large Clarks Nutcracker. I headed down after a short time and took the alternate route around Nymph Lake. Part way to the trailhead I removed my snowshoes again. The trail still had some fresh snow on it but was firm enough that I saw a couple of people coming up wearing sneakers(!).



Back in EP, the sun was shining and after lunch we took a soak in the outdoor hot tub. C.J.'s knee is definitely doing better and we've booked a three-night stay at the WorldMark Red River resort in northern New Mexico. The x-c ski area there is closed for the season but we should be able to find some things to do to amuse us. It's not far from Taos, and even Santa Fe should be a reasonable day trip, I think. So we've gotten mostly packed up and some of it is in the car (our wings, for example, which we probably are not going to get to use this trip). C.J. picked out a video (a freebie based on our TravleshareElite status, whoo-hoo) for tonight. Life is good.