Snow blocked the road at 3400 feet, 1.6 miles from park Boundary. We started skiing on poor snow for .5 miles, then there were a few short bare spots to walk in the next .2 miles. The next mile we mostly walked the road except for a .3 mile section that had snow. The first bare section was .3 miles long and the second was .4 miles long. Finally in the park the snow improved. At the Paul Peak parking lot there was 3 feet of snow. 3.5 miles from our SUV, 3900 feet, we headed back. In a couple of weeks, you should be able to drive to the park boundary.

The snowshoe route up Mowich Lake Road is well traveled but on this day I had it to myself. At 11:30 I hit the trail at the Paul Peak parking area under an overcast sky. An abundance of waterfalls, seeping rock faces and icicles made for a pleasant trip as did the snow which began falling. I chose to stay on the road and save the red flagged shortcuts (see carbon river report jan 13)for the descent. I fell into a good rhythm and was surprised to find myself at the Mowich Lake turnaround at 1:10. The far end of the lake was obscured by the shroud of falling snow which was increasing in intensity. Sometimes when the lowlands are covered in clouds or mist Rainier offers sunshine with elevation. Today was not one of those times. I headed back to the truck, taking advantage of two of the well marked shortcuts with their ""over the river and through the woods"" feeling. I reached the trailhead at 2:30. The fresh snow made the six inch deep snow/ice ruts seem more slippery than on the way in. Bring a 4X4 or walk the last half mile to the trailhead. Happy Trails!

Our party of six met early Saturday morning for a snowshoe trip to the Mowich Lake area on the Northwest side of Mt. Rainier National Park. We were equally divided: Jim, Dee and I were planning to camp; Henry, John, and Sarah were just out for the day. The Mowich Lake Road was open and had only about 4 inches of new snow on it by the time we reached the Paul Peak parking area on Saturday. The snow was falling, however, and we harbored a small amount of concern about what the road would be like when we came out on Sunday. Fortunately, there were others going in overnight, so we rationalized that there was safety in numbers: if we got stuck, at least we wouldn't be stuck alone. We left the cars at about 10:30 and carried our snowshoes the first half mile up the road due to the limited snow cover. We took the hiker's cut-off path through the forest after about mile 2, and enjoyed a delightful winter stroll in the trees. The amazing cotton-clad, ""Smarties""-eating Henry broke trail most of the way up the road and into the forest. There was very sparse snow cover in the trees, but where the canopy wasn't as thick the new snow had accumulated a good 6 to 12 inches. The path was fairly visible and easy to follow due to the overall low snowpack. We reached the ranger cabin at Mowich Lake about 1:00 in the afternoon and took a long lunch break on the front porch picnic table. Mistake! I cooled down during our too-long and too-comfortable break, and it was all I could do to saddle back up with my 45-pounder to get moving! But it was worth it . . . The three day-trippers left us at the junction with the Wonderland Trail. It was beginning to snow heavily, and as we traversed on the path west of the lake, the trees decided all at once to shed their snow on top of us! The Wonderland Trail was easy to follow, with the snow cover sparse in the thicker reaches of the forest and snowy in the more open areas. We reached the lake about 4:30 and quickly set up camp near a partially unfrozen stream. The gentle sound of snowflakes falling on the tent fly accompanied by the not-so-gentle ""Blair-Witchian"" sounds of my partner shaking the snow off the tent serenaded me all night. Sunday morning we woke to clearing skies, swirling fog, and about 2 inches of new snow. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed up to the Tolmie Peak Lookout, just a mere 600 feet above us. We were not able to find the trail up, so we just picked a good spot and headed up the hill, and eventually intersected the trail about two-thirds of the way up the peak. It was probably the most glamorous snowshoe summit we have gotten all year! The trail winds through thinning evergreens to a ""dreamy"" ridge, which leads directly to the lookout cabin. I was hoping to get a view of the ""Big Guy"", but alas Mt. Rainier was still shrouded in cloud and fog. It took us an hour and a half round trip from camp to the summit and back. We followed the trail on the way back down, but when the trail went out onto some unstable open slopes, we ducked back into the trees and descended to the next switchback. We packed up camp at noon and headed back to the parking lot. There was enough new snow to snowshoe out the entire way, but it was getting thin again near the parking lot. There were also plenty of skiers and snowshoers out Sunday to flatten a nice path down the Mowich Lake Road. We reached the parking lot by 3:15. Trip Stats: About 14 miles round trip to the lookout. Although the map elevation gain appears to be 2,500 feet, it ended up being about 3,200 feet due to the up and down nature of the trail. Snowpack Notes: There appears to be very low avalanche hazard on the trip to Eunice Lake (a few open slopes beneath rock cliffs showed signs of very small slides on our return trip). The new snow fell on an old, icy crust, and the big open slopes will probably be unstable until the new snow bonds. The open slopes above Eunice Lake were beginning to slide from snow melting off the rock cliffs and falling down onto the slope, triggering small point-release avalanches. If you avoid the open slopes, the climb to the Tolmie Peak Lookout is fairly safe.