UPDATE: Its been reported that the road from Bagley Lakes to Artist Point will close today (10/15), although neither the WSDOT or NFS websites have posted this, yet.
Surprising to me, the full length of the road to the Artist Point parking lot remained open after the Sunday storm and there was some sanding on the last stretch. This is the first time in over ten years living in Bellingham that I have seen them treat that stretch of the road rather than just closing it. I left the Artist Point parking lot at 4:20am for a starlight and last quarter moon hike and to see a sunrise at the East Portal. Since I left about a half an hour later than I should have, I had to make up about a half an hour from my usual pace to get to the portal in time and didn’t really get any star gazing in. In the dark, basically any part of the trail that wasn’t snow covered was glazed with ice. Very little snow is on the route before the Chain Lake Loop junction. Descending down into Ptarmigan Ridge Trail from there are some very thick icy stretches. The snow depth out to the Camp Kiser area only exceeded a couple of inches in short drifted stretches. By the time I reached the base of the East Portal, snow depth was up to 5 or 6 inches and on top of the portal, 8 to 12 inches was the norm. The clear air and views today were breathtaking and I stayed on the portal for two hours. Didn’t encounter anyone else until arriving back at the Goat Lake viewpoint (didn’t look at all frozen, yet). From there, there were about a dozen others on Ptarmigan Ridge, though many more were encountered after returning past the lake loop junction. A lot of the icing on the lower trail after the junction melted out in the sunlight, but became a bit muddy. These conditions will probably only hold for another day or two as more stormy weather is forecast for Thursday night.
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