[garyw]

Our cross country ski trip on the Schweitzer Creek Loop turned out to be more of an adventure than we had bargained for. We had glorious, sunny weather and generally poor snow. Snow covered Lake Evan and Boardman Lake were gorgeous. There were nice views of Three Fingers to Mt. Dickerman. But, there were at least 20 small logs across the road and one huge one. Numerous small trees overhung a section of the road. Skiing by moonlight would have been much more fun if the road had a decent snow cover.

Sign at Trailhead

Trailhead

Mark and I had skied this loop many years back with no problem and thus were a bit over confident about the trip this day. There were two other vehicles parked at the “trailhead” when we started at 9:15. There was room for perhaps five or six more vehicles. The trailhead was at the junction of the Schweitzer Cr. Rd and the Mountain Loop Highway. The snow was two to three feet deep right off the bat, more than I’d ever seen in this area. But the snow was nearly rock hard with a couple of ruts left over from the day before by snowshoers and skiers. We decided to use our climbing skins which we left on until we started the downhill part of the loop. We had to step over or under quite a few small logs across the road. For a couple of them we had to take off our skis.

First Logs on Road

We were in no great hurry and with my many photo stops our pace was a bit slow. After 1½ hours we had our first view of peaks across the valley.

Big Four? Peeking Over Ridge

After about 2 hours we had gone an amazing 2.5 miles and reached the junction with the road we would later return on.

Uh Oh, Log Blocks Ashland Lakes Road

Mark on Boardman Lake Road

Boardman Lake Road

We took the left fork to do the loop clockwise. Though as it turned out we weren’t very clock wise. In another half hour we had another view out and at a little over 3 hours from the start we had a great view of Three Fingers to Mt. Dickerman and I think one end of Big Four.

Three Fingers

Mt. Dickerman

Our intention was to do a side trip to Lake Evan and Boardman Lake, but we skied right past the unmarked trailhead. No signs were visible at the trailhead. One needs to watch carefully for Boardman Creek which sneaks under the road through a culvert. We had skied a quarter mile past the junction before we figured out our error. We headed back, found Boardman Creek and skied on the east side of the creek to Lake Evan where we had our lunch starting at 10 past 1.

Lake Evan

Lake Evan Outlet

After lunch we headed up cross country through the forest to Boardman Lake. There is a trail to the lake hidden somewhere under the 6 to 8 feet of snow. We checked a topo map and took a compass bearing to keep us headed in the right direction. Boardman Lake was beautiful.

Boardman Lake

That's Me at Boardman Lake Outlet

A slope across the lake showed signs of recent avalanche activity. Two snowshoers had camped near the lake. After a short stop, we retraced our route back to the road, took off our climbing skins and continued the loop.

Three Fingers

We made good time at first until we reached the stretch with about a dozen small trees hanging low over the road.

Overhanging Tree Stretch

Mt. Pilchuck

The road finally turned to the right and it was time for the off-road route through the forest to the Ashland Lakes Trail. This is where you need experience to avoid getting lost. But that didn’t stop us. The off-road stretch (about 1/8th mile) used to be marked with blue diamonds westbound. The difficult part is to spot the Ashland Lakes Trail. On this trip we chose to follow ski tracks that headed off into the woods. We didn’t search for any trail markers and didn’t see any along the ski tracks we followed. Eventually the ski tracks veered left and stopped high above Black Creek and below was a foot log across it. Bingo! We were on the trail, but headed the wrong direction. We made a u-turn to follow the trail out.

Ashland Lakes Trail

The trail had a few small trees leaning over it. But otherwise it was fairly easy to ski. We finally reached the trailhead.

Mark at Ashland Lakes Trailhead Outhouse

The only indication was the roof line of an outhouse peeking out of the snow. On top of the roof was about 8 feet of snow. It ‘s likely to be a late hiking season to Ashland Lakes this coming summer. Another quarter mile and we reached the main road. It was almost 5:00 and we had almost 5 miles left to go. The 2+ miles to the road junction completing the loop went by uneventfully. Right before the road junction a large impassable log blocked the road. We took off our skies and walked a detour route through the forest. It was now 5:30, almost dark and we had 2.5 miles back to the car. The road was a mish mash of snowshoe and ski tracks. Not a fun ski in the daylight, even less fun in the dark. And it was soon dark, but a nearly full moon lit stretches of the road. After struggling with his skis, Mark chose to walk. I continued skiing until Mark finally caught up. So we both walked the last half mile to the cars arriving at 7:15. The basic loop is 11.5 miles long with 1800 ft gain. Add 1.5 miles round trip and 300 ft gain to go to Boardman Lake.

[JimK]

Thanks for the report Gary. For those interested, this is the Gary who is largely responsible for the Nordic Pass Trail.

[Hiker Mama]

Boardman Lake is one of my favorite hikes. It is really cool to see it with that much snow in the area. Thanks for posting this report!

[goats gone wild]

Good going, Gary. Great TR...read like an adventure story! That is one heck of a lot of snow on the outhouse.

[Dayhike Mike]

Thanks for the TR! Looks like you guys had a good time...