52 Hikes 52 Weekends: Week 28 Mar. 12

Total Distance: 13.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 3676 ft.

Min: 1700 ft. Max: 2885 ft.
Time: 12:15 pm - 5:00 pm
Weather: Cool, overcast, and rainy with short periods of freezing rain.

Well, I had a great time snowshoeing because anytime snowshoeing is a great time. But, there were a lot of things hat made this a tough, bittersweet outing in the woods.

First, the plan was to go with a friend on Sunday, but she backed out Friday evening. Looking at the avalanche danger rose for the weekend on Friday evening, Saturday was the safer day. I went to bed with alarms set, but I was still not 100% committed. I finally got up at 8 am, after my alarms had gone for a few hours. And it took me until about 9 to get out of the door, plus I had to stop and get gas. I knew it was a long hike with a long drive, and I was getting a late start. This was the first mistake.

After driving for a good two hours, I finally get to Packwood. I had my snowshoe route book with me, and it said to get to Packwood and "turn right after the Ranger Station." Well I was looking for a Ranger Station as I drove out of town. I found a place to turn around, went back to a gas station and asked where the road was. I looked up the directions the night before on my laptop and iPad. I could have easily gotten the name of the road the turn was on, but I didn't. This was the second mistake.

The trailhead is 6 miles of WA -Highway 12, and at mile 3.5, I could not get my car through the patch of snow. I got turned around and would begin my walk on the road. I took a second to get geared up: boots, gaiters, poles, strapped my snowshoes to my pack, rain gear on, and started walking, fast. It was about 12:15 pm, and I knew if I was going to get to the lake I would have to go quickly. In about 10 minutes I came across two big down tress, so I would not have been able to drive much farther from where I parked. This was also when I realized that no one else was on the trail ahead of me or I would have seen their cars. I was excited by a day alone on the trail.

As always, I was over dressed, especially with my pace, and soon I was sweating. I waned to power through the road section, so I just kept going. After about an hour, I was ready for some water. And then it hit me, mistake number three, this one was the BIG ONE. I left all three water bottles in my car. I had almost left them in my house. Running through the house right before I left, I saw them by the sink. When I grabbed them, I just through them in the front seat. When I parked and got out of the car, I completely forgot them. It was too far to turn around and get them and still make it to the lake, so I thought I could just grab some handfuls of snow as I got thirsty and let it melt in my mouth.

I walked and walked. I rarely stopped, only to take pictures or use the bathroom. I was constantly checking the time, nervous about no water and a potential late evening. I also kept weirding myself out. On the trail there were tons of elk, deer, and coyote tracks. With the lack of noise being made and my rain gear making soft, subtle sounds, I started to mentally spiral into fear. I would turn around quickly an expect to see something, but I was alone... every time.

Finally at 2:30 pm, I turned around to head back to the car. I was a little sore, but more nervous about the lack of water and the sunset seemed impending. I was out a little quicker on the way down. I was back walking on the road by 4. Around this time, the sun started peaking out a bit. Around 4:30 pm, a black tail deer came out of the trail about 100 feet ahead of me. It was across the road so quick, I wasn't able to snag a picture. I was back at the car at 4:55 pm. I walked around front and saw two huge elk. I turned off my cell phone tracking app. When I got cell service again, I got the map downloaded behind the track, see it here. I was less than a mile from the lake...

Orchid: The walk down from 4 until about 5 pm.

Onion: Leaving all my water in the car forcing me to turn around not knowing how close I was to the lake.

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