Hiking: Tarbell Trail III

Today, I went up to Tarbell Trail again, at Tarbell Trail Head. It was quite snowy as you'll see from the pictures, and there was absolutely no way I'd make it any closer to Silverstar in my little Civic. Even getting to this trail head was kind of pushing it. Once again, I got a late start and ended up only making it to Kloochman Butte, after 2 hours. The snow was really deep (6" to 18" of fresh powder), and without snowshoes, it was slow going. It was kind of crappy conditions at first for picture-taking because it was so snowy and the clouds were right on me. It cleared up a for a short while on my way back, and I got a couple of good shots.

More pictures and information on the next page!

I took a backpack with: 3L of water, power bars, 3L of water, a snow skateboard, extra gloves, extra shirt, extra bandanas, a water proof camera, rope, first aid kit, flashlights, etc. Total Weight: 20Lb.

I've been to this trail before this season and the road (DNR 1100) was covered in about 2 inches of snow. This made it slow going once I got off pavement, averaging probably 8MPH. Any faster, and I was just spinning the tires needlessly. Half way up 1100, it started to snow like crazy and I was kind of worried about parking my car, and it getting snowed in during my short hike. Fortuitously, once I got to the trail head, there was a clear parking spot under a huge pine tree that was free of snow on the ground, so I figured it was a safe bet. This trail does require a Washington State Parks Discover Pass, so I displayed that. I changed into my gear -- put on my jacket, big boots, strapped on my backpack and slid my snow skate between my back and backpack, which I'd discovered is a pretty comfortable way to carry it. I've tried strapping it to my pack, but it just wobbled around a little too much or in some experiments, it just hung over my head and sometimes bonked me. The way I had it made me feel like I had wings. You can see in the picture below.

The ascent to the first Tarbell Trail marker was in the open fields of small pine saplings and it was really windy because there was no cover. I tightened the strings on my hood and tromped through the super fresh powder. Clearly no one had braved the rainy/snowy conditions to get to this trail today, because it was pristine. The initial ascent is very moderately steep and the only hardship was the depth of the snow. Switching off between trudging through the snow and high stepping through it, made it a little easier on my legs.

After the initial ascent, you are in densely wooded forest. These forests are managed by the State Dept of Resource Management and they do quite a bit of logging around this area, but the first part of the forest you come to has immensely tall trees and plenty of mature ground foliage like ferns, indicating it's been there quite a while -- a stark contrast to the initial ascent, where, with the snow cover, all you can see are the little tippy-tops of sapling trees. The hike from here on out was pretty uneventful. I was listening to This Week In Microbiology to pass the time and it was entertaining and informational as usual.

When I got to Kloochman Butte, I did notice some pretty fresh wolf tracks, which was a little unnerving, but I've seen them before on different parts of this trail and it was probably alone, since there were only one set of tracks.

On the way back, I got to skate the little hills which made the return trip more enjoyable and much quicker. I did completely eat snow a couple times, which was quite unpleasant in the powdery snow, since it doesn't make much of a barrier between you and the ground. I got a few good runs out of it, though, making the extra weight totally worth it!

Anyway, here are the long awaited pictures!

Fresh powder... and low visibility.

More visibility = more color!