Elevation Gain: Approximately 2100 ft.
Time: 9:45 am - 2:45 pm
Weather: Cool with clear skies early turning to cloudy skies by the afternoon.
Well, my last hike was a terrific snowshoe up to a ridge line off I-90 in the Central Cascades. The Cascades had just received a big dump of fresh snow the two evenings before, my friend from the Marmot hike was planning a snowshoe so I was just tagging along, and it was New Year's Eve day. The whole day was set up for a perfect hike. The day was phenomenal. Here is a quick recounting almost half a week later.
We met early and were in North Bend around 8:15 am. We exited on the off ramp, got a little off track, parked the car, geared up, and were walking on up a snowmobile highway to the top of Keechelus Ridge by 9:45 am. My friend and I quickly got of the old road, and made our own route through the forest. We had a topo map, a ton of fresh snow, and now tracks to follow. We jumped across one creek early, and we both knew the day was going to rock. Then it was a good long uphill climb, occasionally crossing the snowmobile routes with and without traffic. We got to the summit were it was so cold. Ice was forming in y water bottle, my sweaty base-layer that I changed out for the hike down froze while we took a lunch break. I don't remember when we got there, but we walked down around 1:15 pm. We bounded down much the way we came up and were back at the car a little past 2:30 pm.
We then rocked Seattle for New Year's Eve later that night.
Orchid: Breaking fresh tracks with a friend.
Onion: Not managing gear well.
Picture:
Google Map
Glorious view. What a place to spend the last day of the year! Larry
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