Another weekend of snowshoeing, except we moved more north this time and headed to Gold Creek Sno-Park up at Snoqualmie Pass. Overall, we went 5.6 miles, the longest of the season so far, and climbed about 1,220 vertical feet.

The snow at the bottom of the trail was not that nice as the pass is lower (2,600′) and with the warm winter that we have had so far it has seen its fair share of snow, thaw, and then freeze. But, as we got up higher, the snow quality improved and it improved even more so after we headed off from lunch. There was a good coating of snow in the pass, which was a down pouring of rain in Seattle, but this made for a nice cushion to walk on back down the mountain.

Last time we did this, we did not make it nearly as far, so this time was much more successful than the previous trip; as far as distance is concerned. However, I think we could get to the top next time, but with all the snow coming down and needed to drive off the pass, we wanted to do it in daylight and we decided to head back down earlier than later.

Overall, lots of fun, and that twice now that we’ve had snow when we’ve been out snowshoeing. Maybe next time we’ll head to the NE side of Mt. Rainier near Sun Top so that Kevin can get his buffalo burger in Enumclaw on the way back into town.

Yesterday, Jamie, Kevin and I made our first snowshoeing outing of the season. We headed to Mt. Rainier with the high hopes of taking on Mazama Ridge. However, after getting a little bit into our trek we realized that the way we were looking to head was not really passable with all of the snow. Instead we stayed in the large area above Paradise. All of us took quite a few photos which you can take a look at enjoy. Also, below is the path that we took yesterday. As you can see we don’t really follow much of the summer hiking trails, but with all the snow, it’s almost like there needs to be a separate map for the winter.