[Alan Bauer]

SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2004 - IRON BEAR ROAD SNOWSHOE Finally the weather got warm enough to make getting over the pass easy again so I picked up friends Michael and Dennis at Preston and we headed east. We had ideas to do something close like Mount Washington but with the warm-up and recent rains the snow would have been lousy even if it was going to be a nice day at home. So we took our chances of a day in the inversion of fog east of the crest and headed to an area south of Blewett Pass. I long have wanted to snowshoe up the road that leads to the summer Iron Bear trailhead, the best route to Teanaway Ridge if you ask me. This was a perfect snowshoe trip in the sense that even on a busy Sunday the area was essentially abandoned. WDOT crews nicely plow out a small area here where 3-5 cars could fit and not only is it an area of volunteer non-motorized usage, it isn't even a snowpark! It was a rare day out where I didn't have to put some sort of permit on the dash of my rig.... We arrived and were snowshoeing out from the roadside area before 10:00am as the only people parked there, watching herds of X-country skiers and snowmobile rigs heading toward Blewett Pass or Old Blewett Highway, just 1/2 mile north of us over the ridge. There was a packed trench from a previous day snowshoe outing that we followed up the long straight road. Luckily I stomped off the track soon after we left and "Oh my goodness!" we all exclaimed as I sunk in to the tops of my gaiters! I quickly 'shoed back to the rig to get the tail extenders for our snowshoes which we had left behind, just in case the track we were following didn't go far. We had intended on heading up Rd. 113 about 2 miles in and doubted we'd have their day-old tracks to follow. Sure enough we were only 1/2 mile in and the path stopped! Oh my did the work begin. This was the fluffiest snow I've ever been in and even with the extenders on the snowshoes I was still packing down 14-20" deep with every step of the way. Often deeper than 24". I broke trail up the road from this point by the West Fork road all the way to our junction with Rd. 113. Rather than stay down low in the valley and head to the Iron Bear summer trailhead (beyond that would require passing some nasty avalanche areas to get up toward the ridge) we headed up our side road to the north. Here Dennis began to break trail as I was completely exhausted from the past mile of work. The road up was lovely through the forest and deepening snow. We took a break 1/2 mile up for lunch and pushed on. After about the second switchback in the road some lovely views began to open up toward the south and we could see the Red Mountain lookout building down south of us. A look at our watches told us we still could likely push on for one more hour, knowing the downhill hike out through the "canyon trough" that we were creating in the snow would be very quick compared to the painfully snow one-step-at-a-time slog up in such fluff! It was, however, fun to be snowshoeing and not be having to hear the noise of the MSR snowshoes on the hard snow...it was silent all along the way after the first 1/2 mile in when we reached colder temperatures. The wheel shaped rolled up balls of snow that had come down the hillsides were fascinating to look at and photograph! We finally stopped at our 2pm turnaround time and spent 15 minutes behind the camera...and in the sun. Oh, did I forget to mention the sun? There was no fog even from the time we began and within 1/2 hour of starting it was sunny! Ahhhhhhhh.... We plowed on back down, fascinated to look behind us at what was now a trench in the snow 20-30" deep and 18" wide from our path up and down in the snow. This fluff it turns out was for real as when I got home I read of the snowmobile group who just 5-6 miles south of us had their machines essentially disappear down in 6-7' of fluffy soft snow. Without the snowshoes I'd sink in 4 feet easily! About half way down Rd. 113 we met a group of four skiers who had come in behind us. They were sitting in the sun at the first viewpoint enjoying a cozy lunch. They thanked us heartfully for having broke the trail up and realized their lovely Border Collie, Abby, wouldn't have had a chance to make it in w/o our path. After a nice talk with them, photos of their dog that I wanted to take, we headed on down. Upon reaching the Iron Bear road it again was difficult work as the snow was still hard to plow through on more flat terrain. It was a rather hard and long 2 miles back to the rig and upon getting out by 4pm or whenever it was I was spent. I've never worked so hard for 6 miles of outdoor roaming! Alas, this will be an annual snowshoe for me....almost always good snow and it was hard to imagine only two groups were using the same area as we were. I still could see WDOT turning this into a SnoPark area...but until they do I'll enjoy it to myself.

[JimK]

Alan, Sounds like you had a great trip. I've been meaning to go up there on snowshoes or skis for years. One minor correction. That was Red Top Lookout you saw. I suspect you are still feeling that workout today. Deep snow is a killer.