2008 December 30 - Lake Wenatchee/Nason Ridge

Octavian and I took advantage of a window between storms to dash over to the Lake Wenatchee Sno-Park and ski some of the trails up on Nason Ridge. I've been here many times in the summer, but I've never had a chance to ski here. We saw a few folks on the lower trails, but once we got a few kilometers out of the state park and away from the golf course we had the entire ridge to ourselves.

We didn't see much in the way of wildlife, but there were lots of tracks in the snow - some we recognized and some we didn't. Just before lunch, we spotted some tufts of fur in the middle of the trail and then we spooked a large hawk out of tree just above us. We heard a swoosh of wings and a crash like something hit a branch and then he was gone. A bit later we stopped for lunch and spotted this interesting pattern in the snow:

Then we noticed the hawk perched on top of an old snag on the hillside above us. He watched us like, well, a hawk the entire time we ate our lunch. I think he was miffed we interrupted his.

The groomed trails are all on old logging roads, and there are lots of roads on this end of the ridge, so there are plenty of trail miles. It doesn't look like they groom very often up here, but I guess that's part of the price you pay for the solitude.

The map shows an ungroomed trail that descends directly from the top of the ridge so we decided to head down that way. It turns out it follows the Nason Ridge motorcycle trail (#1583). There had not been anybody on the upper part of the trail so it was quite a slog in the deep snow with lots of brush bent down over the trail. But I've been up here when the motos are running and this is a lot better!

Like I said, there's plenty of miles of trail here - we only covered about 3/4 of them and it still got dark before we made it back to the golf course. You'd think by now Octo would remeber to bring a headlamp when he goes out with me.

Here's a link to the trail map http://www.parks.wa.gov/winter/trails/mapdownloads/nonmoto/Nason%20Ridge.pdf

I'll post a link to the photo album shortly...

2008 December 18 - Snow Day!

UPDATE 22 December: This is getting out of hand. "Snow Day" is turning into "Snow Week" and I'm not too happy about it. It just keeps dumping on us - we even made the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/us/22snow.html Missing work is one thing, but I had to cancel my first sno-park trip today because the roads are so bad. Nothing to do but ski up to the neighborhood park again. At least I ran into this nice fellow out for a few turns himself and we had a nice chat.

Original post:

Wow, first tracks of the season and they're practically right out my front door!

We don't get a lot of snow here in the Puget Sound lowlands, so when it does hit it it's big news. Traffic is paralyzed, work comes to a standstill, schools all close and grownups everywhere start whining and complaining.

My friend and former northwesterner Ray, who moved out to the midwest many years ago, sent me an email this morning offering the loan of a snow shovel. (They're only expecting 8~10 inches tonight - I guess that's not much where he lives - and he heard we might get an another inch. He's seen enough Seattle drivers to feel sorry for us out here.) As if I would do the responsible thing and shovel the sidewalk -- not even close!

Check out Huck and Bill, the two snow dogs in our little slideshow: http://picasaweb.google.com/trueguides/SnowDay#slideshow

2008 December 12 - Pratt Mt.

In an attempt to burn off the last of our 2008 vacation days, Doug and I skipped work to hike up Pratt Mountain. After a short discussion about who had the least expired NW Forest Pass and which route would be best this time of year, we took my car up to the Talapus Lake trailhead. The snow started falling just as we arrived at the trailhead, and got heavier and heavier as we climbed up. I imagine there are some great views from the top, but by the time we got there we could only see about ten feet.

We only stayed on the summit long enough for a couple of photos and an energy snack before the storm drove us off. (I had a new overpriced OR jacket that I brought along just for this part of the trip and it was working great, but Doug didn't want to hang around long enough for me to test the theory that I could sit around comfortably in it for an hour in a howling snowstorm.)

The hike out was easy if a little damp. The only injury was suffered by my phone when we got back down to Olallie lake and I tried to take a call and the snow shorted out the LCDs. By the time we got down to the parking lot, the temperature was back above freezing and the preciptation had changed to rain. Probably 4 inches of snow fell while we were hiking, but at the trailhead elevation (2600') it was disappearing fast in the rain. Still looks like a good start on the winter snowpack though.

A quick hike like this beats work anytime. Here's a few more photos:PrattMt

2008 December 11 - Cracks all year.

The forecast says it will be snowing everywhere in Western Washington by the weekend, but Dan wanted to get one more trad lead in before we switch sports. So I took off work a little early on Thursday to go climbing. Dan swung by the office and grabbed me at about 12:30, and by 2:30 we were standing at base of some very wet cliffs in the British Aisles area on Little Si. After a little discussion and a coin toss I declined to participate in, Dan got the honor of the first (and only) lead. He went up "First Things First" putting in pro every two feet, but considering the conditions, that felt a little run out:After he got the rope up, we played a bit on the 5.6 routes and each took a shot at the 5.9 on the same wall. Not so easy when it's this wet - we'll have to try this in the summer sometime. Another thing: it sure gets dark early this time of year. We only climbed two or three times each and still ended up hiking out by headlamp. At least there weren't any crowds.