A note on trail/snow conditions: the poles are not up yet. The ranger at Longmire said they might get them in this weekend. The snow level is still low enough to see the tops of the shrubbery. Looks and feels like early November on the hillsides. I'm waiting for those poles because that makes even breaking trail easier.
Since Nisqually Vista was a no-go and I wasn't interested in Skyline just yet, I hit Valley Rd, which is closed to vehicles, but open to ski and snowshoe travel. Super soft snow. At times, I sank a foot at least with my snowshoes. The trees are heavily loaded with snow. Winter wonderland all the way down to a nearly monochormatic colorscape. The poles are up on the road at 4th crossing where the rangers would like people to turn around due to avalanche chutes beyond that point. It looked like no one had been up Mazama Ridge yet.
Couple things:
The road was icy from about Comet Falls trailhead to Paradise. They put sand down, which helped a lot. At 10am, 2-wheel drive had to chain up. My Subaru Crosstrek did fine.
Hey, post holes suck.
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