Elevation Gain: Approximately 3000 ft.
Time: 9:45 am - 4:15 pm
Weather: Mostly cloudy, cool, very little periods of light snow.
My buddy, Creighton, and I had talked during the week at work about hiking together this weekend. We went to see the Upper School's winter musical Friday night and chose Sunday. It was supposed to be the better weather day, and we both had work to do this weekend. We talked late Saturday night and settled on snowshoeing up to Mount Margaret, only 90 minutes away and only 9 miles round trip. We had no problems getting to the trailhead. We were there by 9:30 am. We geared up and took off by 9:45.
The hike starts off on a snow covered road that parallels I-90. We carried our snowshoes for about 15 minutes, then as we made a turn up the slope, we stopped to put our snowshoes on. We climbed up the road and it switched-back a few times. We got to a left, right split, and we had read in the trail book to stay left. Looking at Google maps when I got home, this was the "wrong turn." The road curved around the south and west of the ridge that makes Mount Margaret. We continued walking along, when we saw the road continue up, and a trail curve around to a ridge that separates Mount Margret from Gold Creek. I asked Creighton if he wanted to just try and walk up to the top of that ridge, and he was up for it.
We came around the south-east side of the ridge, climbing gradually. We then came out on the west side and had an amazing view of Keechelus Lake and the other peaks to the west. We began climbing up the south aspect of the ridge, and in no time Creighton was topping out, while I was left slowly kicking steps up. We got to some great views, and kept climbing. As we came around to the north side, we were greeted with great views of Kendall Peak, Alaska Mountain, and Snoqualmie Mountain. Creighton suggested we climb a little further, and before I knew it, I was alone slowly trying to get up the mountain. When I got near the top, Creighton was hollering from up a little ways further. He said it was not very nice where he was, so I stopped right where I was and took a nice long break.
I was drenched with sweat. My shirt and pullover were soaking wet. I took off everything but the shirt and put on a down jacket. We took a snack break and after about 30 minutes took off back for the car. The first 20 minutes of the decent was tough. We were in the trees and the snow was icy and hard. When we came out of the trees, we found the snow a little softer from being "in the sun" for the day. We bombed down many a steep slope, back the way we came. We were back at our car about 2 and half hours after we began the decent.
Orchid: Great day with my friend, Creighton.
Onion: Not managing for sweat, and not having a spare shirt for the hike out.
Picture:
Google Map
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