Snow Peak — Friday, Apr. 30, 2021

We started at the snow peak trailhead.  The road was great except one deeply rutted spot at the beginning but easily passable in our Subaru.  The trail was clear of snow mostly in the beginning and a little more than half way we had to put on our snowshoes and leave them on the rest of the way to the cabin. By the time we got to the end the snow was a bit mushy which made it a little tougher than we would have liked and we did some postholing where there were downed trees under the snow even in our snowshoes, so be careful. In hindsight we would have like to get on the trail a little earlier and perhaps the snow would have been a bit more firm. It did make for a group of very sleepy physically exhausted hikers who had a fantastic nap in the cabin on our arrival. The next three nights were glorious, clear starry skies, sunny days, and good company. Having learned a lesson on our arrival we got up early on the day of our departure and the trek across the snow field leaving the cabin was a breeze or at least way easier than the hike in. The snow was crunchy, no more postholing!  More snow had melted and we were able to remove our snowshoes after about a mile or so and hike a mostly snow clear trail out. There were some more patches of snow, but we were able to walk without our snowshoes mostly on these patches. It was fantastic and our 3.5 year old made it out on her own 2 feet except for that first snow field where she rode on her dad's shoulders.  We had envisioned using our burley trailer with the ski attachments but it was a failed attempt and we left it on the trail and grabbed it back on our way out. For those of you who have had the pleasure of staying at Snow peak cabin as we have you will notice the wonderful new cook top that they have brought in and a new axe for cutting the wood. A big shout out to the Forest service for that!!  It's always great to go up there and not have to bring your stove but the previous burner was definitely in need of replacement.