Spider Meadow- Glacier Peak Wilderness

It is a little bit of a long drive to get to the trail head coming from the mouth of the Methow River but worth it. The paved road is in great shape, the gravel, dirt road isn't really that bad, I have drove on worse. With care you can miss most of the large potholes, a few sections of fairly rough rock. But if you have been to Harts pass this seems fairly tame. By the time we made it to the trail head it was close to 9 AM, we left the house at 5:30 AM. There was about 25 cars in the parking area and starting to narrow the road down with cars parked on both sides. Most of them appeared to have been there all night. The trail is in great shape, very well maintained, wide and a beautifully maintained forest. The blueberry plants were very lush and very picked over, some of the tallest blueberry plants I have saw in a long time, waist high in some areas. We spotted 2 goats through one of the clearings on the far mountain, a doe followed us up the valley floor to the meadow on the opposite side of the trail. You cross a couple of low flowing creeks before the trail starts to gain a little elevation then drops you out into the meadow. Wow! What a spectacular site, it is a pretty eye popping site. We progressed very slowing across the meadow, just gazing at the views, plopped ourselves down on a rock in the middle of the meadows and watched the clouds move around, hikers, and searched for animals. Ate lunch and checked the surrounding mountains out through the binoc's, mostly checking for animals but spotting lots of hikers way up above the valley floor. Soaked up the views and beauty for an hour or so before hiking a little farther down the meadow then hiking back out to the car. We pushed it coming back out, maybe a little to hard. I was feeling it the next couple of days in my hips, probably doesn't help that I end up sitting all day at work. By the time we got back out the trail head parking was packed, cars lined up both sides of the road for quiet a ways, close to 50 cars lined up. Beautiful trail, easy hike in and out, the views are fantastic. The drive up there has some pretty grand views as well.

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Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry

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Lost In The Right Direction

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