[bccarlso]

Man, it's been a while since I've been on here. Super stoked to get out and snowshoe this Sunday - the default is Longmire/Paradise, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any trails around Mowich Lake that were covered by enough to make snowshoeing the modus operandi of choice. I took a look at Paul Peak and Skookum Flats trip reports from WTA.org but it looks like snowshoes weren't quite needed - I want some snow! Any ideas? Appreciate any suggestions.

[christensent]

Unless you have an extremely capable 4 wheel drive vehicle, I'm guessing you'll be walking at least 10-15 miles each way to get to Mowich Lake, unless there's some shorter route on foot I'm not aware of. Even with an extremely capable vehicle you'd reach the gate several miles from the lake.

[bccarlso]

Would be in my buddy's Toyota Tacoma - are there any hikes off to the side of the road up the mountain that might have a lot of snow? No need to start off from Mowich lake, just trying to find something maybe in that direction.

[BdCast]

The gate to Mowich is closed 4(I believe) miles below the lake. It’s a good snowshoe trip up the fire road to the lake. Google “Mowich Lake winter route” to learn about the short cuts so you don’t have to walk the switch backs. The snow is very deep leading up to the gate right now. This last storm dropped a lot of snow. I’m not sure if your buddies Tacoma could make to the gate, unless it was lifted on larger tires. My advice would be to go prepared for vehicle recovery. Bring shovels. Extra food. Tow strap. Another vehicle(park it lower on th road). That sort of thing. During the weekend there can be a lot of 4x4 traffic with people trying to make it to the gate, but don’t count on them to magically show up and pull you out. If you have good route finding abilities you could hike from the Carbon River entrance up to Florence Peak and over to the Tolmie Peak lookout. Just be aware of avalanche conditions. Things have been dicey on the steeper slopes, but others will be able to speak more directly about this info. Links: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/mowich-lake

[bccarlso]

Thanks BdCast, just looking for an alternative to Longmire/Paradise, which are great but probably busy this coming Sunday and I've done 'em before. Appreciate it!

[bccarlso]

Hey BdCast - how do these look? https://caltopo.com/m/PNH2 This is without knowing how far up either roads are with the snow that's up there. But just brainstorming here. Edit: looks like road closure from 4 months ago (very likely irrelevant to today's conditions): https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/washington/tolmie-peak-trail--2 - added that in the map. Edit2: if the road closes exactly at the park entrance before Evans Creek then most of the routes I've outlined may be too long of distance, but there seems to be plenty of forest roads around Evans Creek that might make good snowshoe trips.

[Matt]

If you want north side of Rainier, search trip reports for Florence or Arthur Peak, starting from the Carbon River Ranger station. But those are off-trail scrambles on their upper parts, so won't work if you're looking for more of a trail trip.