Wintertime at Mt. Pilchuck 2/28/2010

Heading to Mt. Pilchuck in February? Unheard of unless you are an experienced winter scrambler willing to take the 11 mile route from Pinnacle Lake.

Most of the years snowshoeing Pilchuck means starting from the bottom and heading up the snowed in road to the summer trailhead. Not this year. This year is so much different from all the previous 5 seasons I've actively hiked/snowhoed in Washington State.

As incredible as it sounds, we were able to drive hubby's 2WD Toyota all the way to the summer trailhead, and hike nearly 1000 ft from there to reach the snow. And so were many others.

Mt. Pilchuck is one of the most visited trails in western WA. Gaining about 2500 ft in 3 miles, it is a pretty decent hike, yet hundreds of people attempt to reach the lookout at it's summit every weekend, no matter what the weather.



It was the very first mountain I climbed in WA state and I returned several more times, sometimes the views were spectacular, sometimes we could not see a stretched arm distance, yet every time the trailhead was packed and we met many people along the trail. It's simply one of the places you can't expect solitude, and every time you hike it, you meet somebody you know.

Today turned out great. It was only me and hubs, and we had a later start since I did 3800 ft hike yesterday and wanted to enjoy sleeping in (if alarm buzzing at 7:30 a.m. counts as sleeping in anyway).

It was somewhat foggy in the morning hours but soon after we broke from the forest, the sun got out and created amazing window for us to enjoy all the views, the summits, and even get a tiny bit of vitamin D.

The trail was well defined but rather slippery and we opted to use crampons for added traction. Yak Traks would be just fine but since I let them rest in the trunk of our vehicle, the crampons did the trick.... and we were jealously looked at by many of other visitors who did not bring any traction device whatsoever.

We enjoyed about 30 minutes at the summit before heading down.



I always wanted to get up there in the wintertime and the scenery did not disappoint. I will definitely do another winter ascent of Pilchuck in the future.

Gothic Basin 8/22/2009

Hiking to Gothic Basin is not a piece of cake. The trail is extremely steep and rocky, crosses several streams, leads through few narrower passages next to sizeable cliffs, makes you scramble over boulders and deal with scree.



It's one of the trails where after first mile of walking through the forest you think: "OK, I don't think I will ever feel a need to come back again."

And then you walk out of the forest and all the views open right in front of you... and suddenly you think: "OK, I'm definitely coming back again."



The views are trully incredible and they get even better once you enter the basin and scramble the last several hundred vertical feet to Foggy Lake nested underneath Del Campo Peak.



Fantastic day in the mountains. The sunshine and blue sky was much appreciated after 2 weeks of hiking in cold foggy weather.



9.5 miles, 3000 ft elevation gain

In a hope of views... Pilchuck 7/5/2009

It was a sunny 3 day weekend and it would be a shame to waste it. I'm usually a fan of early starts; however after a crazy firework show out street puts on every year for 4th of July, I decided for a shorter trail close by which would allow us to start later.



With a promise of possible views I opted for Mt. Pilchuck. I can't remember last time I had a view from up there – every time I attempted the mountain in past couple years, it was misty, socked in and we only could see few feet around the trail.




As always on a day like this (and even the more crappy days), Mt. Pilchuck trail was packed with variety of people, many of them rather obviously not having a clue what they're doing. It never cease to amaze me how many people you meet up there in jeans, tennis shoes, carrying not much more than tiny water bottle.

We started hiking around 1:00 p.m. and kept a nice slower but steady pace with few water stops and few more photo stops.



There is still decent amount of snow at the upper part of the trail and the snow melt created variety of waterfalls and little streams along the way, many of which flown down the actual trail. I was very thankful for my Gore Tex boots as we hiked up the wet trail sometimes feeling we're hiking right in the middle of a creek.



We encountered snow coverage about half way up the trail. Few people seemed to turn here but many continued to the lookout. There was a nice well defined path there yesterday to follow; otherwise some areas could be tricky for route finding, especially for those who are not familiar with the area. There were few shorter melted sections at the upper part of the trail but snow continued nearly to the summit.



It got hazy later in the day and the best views were gone before we reached the lookout but still the scenery along the trail was very interesting and we saw enough from the top to leave us satisfied.



Descend through the snow was rather slippery and slower going but not trecherous. Back at the car at 5:30 p.m. It was a good day in the mountains.

Stats: 6 miles RT, 2400 ft elevation gain

Unfinished Business on Anaconda 3/14/2009

Seems like there is some kind of drama going on during our trips to Mt. Loop hwy on yearly basis. It started in 2007 when during our Mt. Pilchuck snowshoe one of the drivers made unwise choice and got stacked in deep snow. In an attempt to get un-stacked his wheel sliced through the snow, dug into the wet gravel underneath and shot a geyser of rocks in the air, smashing a side windows of our second vehicle.

In 2008 we enjoyed interesting day snowshoeing directly on the snow bound portion of Mt. Loop hwy where we could hear several avalanches raging down from surrounding peaks which from a safe distance was pretty impressive experience. Once we returned to our cars we saw a couple of young guys who got their passenger car stacked and lacking proper equipment were trying to dig themselves out with tennis rockets. Being nice we offered them help and our shovels and got them out. Well, they didn’t get far.. and neither did we. Just few miles from Deer Creek a cabin was on fire. Fire truck and all their hoses blocked this already quite narrow part of the highway. We went to check things out just to find out they actually run out of water and were just standing there trying to figure out what to do. (Yes, there is a river few feet away). It took them quite a while to realize that if the hoses were cleared from the road, they could actually let cars through.

So we are back on Mt. Loop Hwy, heading to give Anaconda Peak a try. It’s actually my 4th time in this area in 2009 and so far nothing happened so it’s obvious something is about to surprise us soon. First the road is fine, wet but clear. We come across first slushy areas in Verlot Ranger Station area but still it’s not that bad. Couple miles further the snow coverage becomes more solid and just deep enough for my Focus to start loosing traction. Well, that’s what chains are for. So we put the chains on and easily handle the snowy part of the highway… until my car does not want to go any further. Oops the chain fell off. So we retrieve the chains and to our surprise find that they did not really fall off, they broke off. Both of them. Fortunatelly we are about 0.1 mile from the trailead and the Mallardy Ridge road nearly next to us has a pullout plowed where we can park. We know the plow will run through here later during the day and with the steady rain the road we’ll be clear before we return from our adventure so we are not really worried about the drive back. Actually it was a good place to figure out the chains were “made in China”. If we were in an area where we would need them to drive out of, we would be in a deep trouble.

Finally we are heading towards our destination, which is Anaconda Peak. The views from the top are spectacular but today we know there are no views awaiting us. Still with 3700 feet it is a decent workout and training for some of the bigger peaks we plan to bag in next few months, we need it. The road is nicely maintained for few minutes, making for a fast progress. Then we get to the first intersection. The maintained road continues straight. We need to take right. From there it’s an obstacle course. We climb under tree, over trees, around trees. Branches are poking us and grab our feet. It rains steadily so in no time we are drenched. Gore Tex or no Gore Tex, today is the kind of day you know you’ll get wet, there's nothing you can do about it. After all we are in the middle of the Seattle "monsoon" season and the weather was treating us fairly nicely so far.

Finally after a long time of fighting with the overgrown and barricaded abandoned road we are at 2,400 ft where we can turn off the road and start gaining elevation through the forest. It’s not much easier here. The windfall is just as bad and the snow conditions are awful. There is a layer of new snow but not much underneath so our snowshoes don’t really have anything to grab to and we slide badly. It would be so much easier if there was a consolidated layer underneath. It’s still raining, or more sleeting at this point.

Finally we get high enough where the weather improves and throws at us gentle snow shower and even gives us a little break. It’s very peaceful here. The true winter wonderland with beautifully snow covered trees. Unfortunately the time is pushing and after gaining about 3000 ft and reaching Gordon Ridge we make a decision to turn around. We will return to conquer Anaconda next time… hopefully in better weather.

Kelcema Lake 1/28/2009

I've been wanting to snowshoe to Kelcema Lake for quite a while. 3 years to be exact. The first time the trip was planned (in 2006), I got sick and spend the day in bed feeling miserable. The second time the trip was planned (in 2007), windstorm came and shattered our hiking plans all together.



When an unexpected opportunity presented itself of having a day off during the week, I knew this will be the perfect trail to go and explore. Third time the charm...Our mid-week trip turned out pretty good. The road was plowed all the was to Deer Creek and Martha's Subaru had no problems getting into a little snowy parking spot.



The trail was on a longer side - 9 miles RT. There was not much fresh snow around but there still was a fair distance of breaking the trail. Most of the trail took us up snow bound forest road and while gaining elevation we encounter several spots where damage to the road likely from recent storms was visible.



The whole route was very interesting but the last 0.4 miles was the most exciting part of the trip. That's where the trail left the road and took us through beautiful wintry forest.

Mt. Pugh Scramble - 9/6/2008

Once again the weather man tricked us into thinking it'll be a gorgeous day and we'll get plenty of sunshine. With vision of all the magnificent views we'll be getting today we arrived at the trailhead and found it partially hidden in the fog.



In was early in the day though and with 5500 ft of elevation we had to gain we figured the sun will have plenty of time to burn the clouds off before we get to our destination.



So we headed up. The first part of the trail took us through the forest where the mist around us made this otherwise regular forest walk more interesting. It was a long walk but the grade was rather gentle. We made a good time to the meadow where we finally got into some steeper terrain and slowed a bit. The flowers were plentiful as
we switchbacked up the hill; however all the views remained hidden behind clouds.



We reached Stujack Pass and took a little break for lunch. With no views, some wind and very light drizzle, there was no reason to hang around there for too long and soon we were back on our feet making our way towards Mt. Pugh summit.



The route got more interesting once we left Stujack Pass and now we were scrambling our way up, getting around rocks, going over few somewhat sketchy exposed part or the trail, but for most of the ascend we had a great time and progressed slowly but surely to the summit.

Once atop of the mountain we took a deep breath and enjoyed the never ending thick layer of clouds everywhere around us. It was pleasurably warm and windless up there. We sat down to make our entries into the summit register and then a little while later we noticed a patch of clear sky revealing little bit of our surrounding. Curiously we watched as it made its way across the sky. The sunshine that came shortly afterwards, making the sky above us bluer and bluer, and it felt unspeakably good too.



It never completely clear but despite the fact we only got tiny glimpse of all the mountains around us, the summit itself held its own beauty making the trip very worthwhile. We stayed up for about an hour before the sun, traveling slowly down towards horizon, reminded us it was a good time to start heading back.