My original plan was to drive up the Cascade River Road as far as I could, hike to the parking lot, and see where I could go from their depending on the snow conditions. However, at the 14 mile point I ran into a flagger who said I couldn't go farther as they had a road crew that was working on the road. The county is going to chip and seal the road. I'm not sure how long it will take to get the whole thing done, as they are working on it in parts. The road is very slick in spots. I decided to backtrack and check out the road to the Hidden Lake trail. It's driveable the first 3 miles. I parked my car there because of a snow patch--dry road after the patch of course but then more snow later on. I'm guessing it's a mile to the trailhead. I snowshoed to the trailhead and continued on up. The first 0.1 mile has a few precarious snow bridges. When you get into the trees it's just dirty ice-slush. I hiked until the trail broke out into an avalanch gully. Quite a gully with heaps and ridges of snow from all the avalanches which come down it from all directions. The views up the gull to the mountains are nice and I followed a pair of ski tracks near the forest edge up the slope a ways for a better vista. When I started to return, I noticed the snow was turning into a slippery slushy sloshy mess. When I got to the road I startled a grouse in a tree, and it in turn startled me When I got back to the car I decided to drive up the CRR to the parking lot as the flagger said the road would be open after they left. I made it up to the gate (mile post 21?) and walked up the road. Winter has taken its toll on the upper stretch and it will require some big cleanup or maybe just taxi service from Arizona Joe.
Your pictures back today? P-bear, are you NOT of the digital AGE?
Sigh!
TB
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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