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Cedar Creek Trail Head, Snowshoeing


I have no excuses for lack of posting besides the fact that winter didn't officially decide to arrive until about January 28th, so the snowshoes traveled around in my truck with me day in and day out until then. Hoping they would bring some kind of good luck and a boat load of snow. I thought life was going pretty good, winter would arrive any day and if not I was going to get in gear and start some dry hiking, and prepare for spring. About the 2nd week of January we got a late Christmas present in the form of a new General Manager at work. Since then my life has been entirely overtaken and rearranged by work. It has been very mind consuming and seems to be sucking all my energy and enthusiasm for weekend romps in the snow that finally arrived. But so far I have still managed to pull my self out of bed most weekends and find something to fill my Saturday with and clear all the work cobwebs out with the brisk clean air. During the long Christmas break my nephew was here on college break and wanted to get out in the snow. As we drove up the Methow Valley I knew it was going to be pretty bare, we continued through Mazama and on up the pass a ways on Hwy 20. This is the first time in a long time that the bottom gate has still been open this late in the season. We drove up to the first trail head pull out, which was clear and plowed wide for parking. The snow was not the best, had a fairly decent crust on it and no new fluffy stuff to cover it. We decided to make the best of it, and since it was my nieces first snowshoe trip we pretty much just had fun and messed around. Slid down a couple embankments, made a few mad dashes to see how fast we could move in our snowshoes, tumbled a few times, took a face plant or two, just made the best of the conditions and enjoyed the outing. When we reached the large parking area where the real trail head begins we made use of the huge sand pile that seemed a little lonely. I pretty much watched the brave souls scale the mountain of sand and slide down on their hind ends and take plenty of spills. Very entertaining. Very short snowshoe trip, lots of fun, a well used area when their is plenty of snow. A place that is easy accessible as long as the bottom gate is open, otherwise it would be a long hike from the bottom gate. When you are standing in the large parking area where the trail head officially starts you get a nice view of the tops of the mountains looking up the North Cascades Highway. This was our last official hike-Snowshoe trip for 2013.
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