Great blasts of wind ripped across Heather Ridge.
Surely, I thought, we would be swept away at any moment.
It was early March and Al Henderson and I were on snowshoes, maybe 1,200 feet above Stevens Pass. After a brief consultation under the protective cover of a mountain hemlock, we decided to descend.
Our descent to Skyline Lake took only 10 minutes and the gale was a mere memory. On the lee side of the ridge, the lake was exquisite in basic white.
I returned to Heather Ridge at the end of March and found it to be a terrific and accessible excursion from the north side of U.S. 2 at Stevens Pass. And the weather was much tamer.
| Snowshoe information
www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/recreation/activities/xcountry Trip ideas, road and trail condition links. The forest service offers guided snowshoe walks. www.parks.wa.gov/winter/parks/nonmotorparks.asp The site for Washington State non-motorized Sno-Parks. www.mountaineers.org The Mountaineers offer members courses on snowshoeing techniques and survival in the back country, plus tours and field trips. www.trails.com Trip ideas, statewide. www.skileavenworth.com Leavenworth Winter Sports Club has 13 km of snowshoe trails at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. 509-548-7641. www.stevenspass.com The Stevens Pass Nordic Area has groomed trails for snowshoers. “The Shoe” Snowshoe trail at Echo Ridge (near Chelan). 509-687-SNOW. |
Of course, if you’d rather mow grass, maybe do chores, fine, but the snow isn’t gone. In fact, it’s less gone than it was in February last year. Snow play is approved until further notice.
Snowshoe travel is mastered almost as soon as the buckles are secured. You really just walk. Suspension above such a soft surface feels like cheating at first, and it seems particularly brash and festive, come spring, when you can strip down to less than three layers of sodden synthetics and remain warm.
Unlike cross-country skiing, snowshoeing requires only that you reach snow. A logging road, trail, ridge or mere hillside becomes a bold route, an adventure for the intrepid pioneer.
Anyone can attach a snowshoe to any boot and walk uphill. The choice of styles, materials and sizes is daunting, but anything that makes your feet big will do the job. The lakes and ridges you’ve been denied since November are now offered up, plus perhaps a few strong-willed mountain flowers barging through the snow and duff to get first sun.
And Cascade high-country wears white well. It brings out the blue skies of spring.
Another great late-season snowshoe destination is Lanham Lake, reached by an easy-to-follow path from a parking area adjacent to the Stevens Pass Nordic Areas, six miles east of the pass.
After the initial signed course along Lanham Creek, a swath cut for power lines provides open views out toward Wenatchee Ridge. Here, I came upon Dean Drugge, taking his fifth-grade class from Bennett Elementary in Bellevue on an annual snowshoe trek.
He was challenging the kids. “See those two ridges? Where do you think the lake will be?” They solved the puzzle quickly.
The trail winds through a parklike, eerily lit stand of mountain hemlock and silver fir to Lanham Lake, framed by massive Jim Hill Mountain, 1100 feet above the parking lot. The kids seemed mildly disappointed that the lake was snow-covered. Expectations of “skating,” I guess.
The spring snowshoe experience, while marvelous, is not quite enough fun to die for. Checking with the Forest Service or state or national parks about avalanche and snow conditions is a simple and smart preliminary to a trip in the mountains. And hypothermia is not only a winter worry. Take those pesky 10 essentials, especially the one about extra clothes. If you cross a creek on snow, remember that it must, sooner or later, melt and collapse.
Remember that Northwest forest passes or Sno-Park passes are required at most trailheads.
While snowmobilers are busy modifying their machines to make more noise, there’s hardly a better time to strap on snowshoes and delight in the mantle of renewal and bluster of spring.
“Snowshoe Routes Washington,” by Dan A. Nelson, describes trips in detail.
Mount Rainier, an especially tempting sunny-weather destination, is surrounded by slopes and trails worthy of any snowshoe. Several established routes take off from the Paradise Lodge parking area.
Enjoy this prolonged snowshoe season. The snow’s not so fluffy now, and you might have to endure patches of bare ground, but hiking blends well with snowshoeing and the shoes are light nowadays.
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