Snowshoeing Stevens Pass

As promised, here is a recap of our snowshoeing adventure. Tracy, Janice, Goldie, and I were planning to go to an area off of highway 2 called Tonga Ridge, which began around 4,000 feet. It was supposed to be a great early season snowshoeing area, before the road got too snow-covered to be passable. Tracy's Corolla did a fine job until her low clearance became an impediment. Unfortunately, the early-season snow we've had prevented us from actually reaching the trailhead, and we had to park a few miles short of it. Good thing Tracy bought those chains before we went!

Conditions were ideal. The snow began as a light coating and quickly reached depths of a few feet. We weren't the only ones with this idea, as we saw 3 or 4 other snowshoeing parties and some snowmobilers as well. The weather started out cloudy, then it began snowing lightly before the sun came out. That ended pretty quickly, though, with the snow returning in earnest. Our hope was to find a geocache hidden at the trailhead parking lot, but after a modest effort, we were only able to get within 200 feet of it, and the snow was so deep it made finding the cache nearly impossible.

On our way back, Tracy had the brilliant idea of building a snowperson. Because the snow was very packable, it made it nice and easy to create big boulders, and before we knew it, we had our creation. Given the size of its hips, I decided to declare it a snowwoman, and we decorated it accordingly. All in all, we hiked about 3-4 miles round trip (Goldie hiked about 10-12), and it was hard work! This was my first trip with my new snowshoes, and they worked well for the most part. Guess we'll have to go again sometime soon (and maybe even spend the night in a snow cave or yurt).

If you would like to see all the pictures we took, click here.