Pain on the Butte Route

 

Well, I went looking for a back door route to Beaver Lake so that people could go up even if the ski runs were operating.  I found one, but it is steep, has a lot of extra elevation gain, and crosses Mountaineers property, which they are pretty pissy about. (And I am a member of Mountaineers, though I am reconsidering that at the moment.) All of that aside, what a difference a couple of weeks makes.  The snow is disappearing quickly.  If they don’t get some new snow, they will not be skiing for many more weeks. I hiked up to the top of the ridge at the Mountaineers, did I mention, don’t do that, and went along the top to Summit West.  I did get a different view of the Beaver Lake, really a pond, as I came down off of the ridge.

The weather was partly sunny today.  Not as nice as my other trips, but it was a better day for snow shoeing than working. And the lake certainly looks different now.  Here was three weeks ago.

 

 

Here is a picture taken from the same spot today

But I did get some great light towards the end of the day.

And some nice turquoise colors when the sun came out

And I really liked the salmon fish scale color as the sun was getting low in the sky

At one point, the sun was a low enough angle that it got internal reflections in the ice and emerged at the edge. That’s the white line you see.  Same principle as fiber optic cables, though they are not usually made of ice.

It was another great day snow shoeing.

Pictures of snow shoe trip

Snow Shoeing with Mary

 

My niece said, “I have a brand new set of snow shoes and I want a hard hike to test them out.” It was music to my ears.

 

Check out the new EVO’s on her feet.  They are  what all of the stylish people wear snow shoeing. We were pleasantly surprised by what a beautiful day it turned out to be.  The snow was packed hard and easy to walk on, though a little noisy. We headed up the gap between Mount Hyak and the Snoqualmie Central ski runs and dropped over the ridge down to Rockdale lake.

McClellan and Granite Peak in the distance, plus a gentle snow field leading down to Rockdale Lake. Below is Mary hiking along the edge of Rockdale Lake.  Somewhere close use to be the old Rockdale station where the ski trains would let people of to ski the Milwaukee Bowl.

We then headed back up to the top of the ridge where we got a great view east.  Ask Mary the names of the peaks.  She knows them now. We dropped down to Hyak Lake

where we saw an unusual track that went out into the middle of the lake.

We guessed missing cross country skier, but I liked Molly’s guess.  She said otter. And then we headed back to the car, though we did catch some great afternoon light with the mist rising off of the snow.

 

Pictures from snow shoe trip

Nordic Pass

 

The sun was out and I had to go snow shoeing.  Headed up from Silver Fir chair at Summit Central, avoided the lifts, and more or less followed the correct trail up.  I skipped the lake on the way back and explored some of the back country on the other side of the ridge. The weather was sunny and the snow was in good condition.

I ran across a set of cross country ski tracks, but that was the only sign of other people I saw the entire trip.  The tracks made a nice addition to the picture.  That is McClellan Butte in the distance

It was calm today, but the wind had been blowing.  I ran across a bush where the wind had scoured the snow except where it was blocked by the thickness of the branch.

And in a few places, there has been enough water running last week to take the snow to ground.

I ran across a bird, I believe it is called “a chubby little bird”.  He/she was diving under the ice at the edge of a stream fishing for what ever chubby little birds fish for. 

 

Worked my way back to the top of the ridge, with it’s usual great views.  Actually, half of the time all I ever see from here is clouds, but not today.  Rampart Ridge on the left with Rachel Lake just over it and Mt. Margaret on the right with Margaret lake at the top of it.

 

Then I worked my way down to Hyak Lake

 

And from there it was a 45 minute stroll down hill, in some cases very down, to the car. 

Full set of snow shoe pictures

Gold Creek Valley

 

The weather was lousy and the road was probably treacherous.  In other words, the ideal conditions for snow showing.  We headed up to the pass and several hundred other families from Seattle had the same idea.  There were families pulling sleds, people on snow shoes, cross country skiers, and a few people who just appeared to be lost. The weather was snowy and some times dark.

 

 

But everyone showed good attitude and played in the snow.

 

We hiked through the trees, over meadows, and along the creeks.

Along the way we discovered some construction equipment in the middle of no where and no clear reason why it was ever there. However, it is certainly shut down for the season.

 

But, for the most part, the time was quiet, the fresh snow was deep

and we walked along enjoying the lack of people and noise.  There was a stop in a total white out to enjoy our lunch

And then a pleasant stroll back to the car, almost.  We didn’t stop at the car, but headed up Kendal Ridge for about twenty minutes enjoying the day.  And then it was on to the pass for a cup of hot chocolate or coffee.

Beaver Lake

 

I went up to Beaver Lake which is more impressive when covered with snow than in the summer when it just looks like a pond.

I was joined by hiking buddy Jim and my brother-in-law Rich. It was chilly, but sunny and beautiful.  I’m currently thawing out the hose to my hydration pack so that I can drain it and put it away. It was one of Rich’s first trips up at altitude and he was gung ho to go

 

 

The picture below, though a snow circle, is not signs of an alien abduction.  It is Jim packing down the snow so that we can set down and have our lunch. Our lunch place had a great view, but limited selection.

The snow had a wonderful texture which photographed well.  There were snow crystals every where and we were in a sparkling wonderland.

 

We wandered around through the trees for an hour, but sadly we had to turn around and head back home.

The trip back to the car had great views and was down a fairly gentle hill with great snow.  So none of us did any somersaults.

 

More photos of snow shoe trip