Cedar Creek Trail, Hwy 20 North Cascades

I am really struggling on keeping current around here. Winter came in a rush after waiting forever for it to show up. It came in a hurry and dumped lots of snow through out February. We snowshoed every possibly weekend, got our fill of snow and cold, and now we have moved very quickly into spring weather. Windy, beautiful days, rain here and there, and a few chilly nights. This snowshoe trip was Feb. 8th. After checking the weather reports I was a little bit apprehensive about going, conditions were a little bit on the cold side for my taste....3 degrees with some wind. My snowshoe buddies didn't want to miss an opportunity to be out in the snow so we headed out with plenty of layers and face guards. It didn't look like there was much new snow till we got closer to Mazama. From there on up the pass, winter had truly arrived to the valley. It was cold when we parked and got ready to hit the trail. Layers, gloves, toe warmers, face guards, hats, snowshoes and we were off. Lots of folks had been stomping up and down this trail access road. There was some deep tracks, snow was very light and easy to kick up in the freezing temperatures. When we reached the huge sand pile that sits out in the wide opening at the official trail head the sun was bright and warm. This time we brought black bags for sledding off the sand pile. Didn't feel 3 degrees standing around in the sunshine watching the younger, braver souls fly off the top of the pile and push snow all the way to the bottom. I just stayed out of the way of flying bodies and documented the craziness. Back to the vehicle along with another warning to not touch anything metal with bare hands or tongues, stripped down layers and in a short time we were off down the mountain in search of hot food in Winthrop, with the heater cranked up to 90. Easy hike into the trailhead, just a slight elevation gain from the parking area right off of highway 20. The gate was still open to Silver star, which is very unusual this late in the season.

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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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Carlton Complex Wildfire, Pateros Washington

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Lost In The Right Direction

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