Mowich Lake Snowshoe — Friday, Mar. 16, 2007

Mount Rainier Area > NW - Carbon River/Mowich

Two buddies & I decided to celebrate a gray drizzling St. Patrick's Day looking for snow on the Mowich Lake Rd. The drive out wasn't bad. Down trees have been cleared, though one threatens to fall. We broke out of the clouds about halfway up. Great view of Liberty Cap against blue sky! The road is snow free to the gate at the Paul Peak trailhead. We did see broken glass at the gate. We didn't carry our skis more than a few hundred yards. The snow was thin and rocky up to 3950 by my altimeter. Snow cover was about 1 - 2 feet deep most of the way. Lots of nice roadside waterfalls - sure sign spring melt is in progress. The road was shaded by the tall trees in most spots. Nice given the warm reather. Occasional breaks revealed views of Tolmie Peak. We kept looking for the Grindstone trail but there was lots of debris on the snow that made it hard to find. The debris wasn't invitng on skis so we stuck to the road. We found lots of melt crust that got pretty hard by the last hairpin. At the top of the hill we were rewarded with a gentle sunny ski down to the campground. The kiosk and the bear pole barely poked out of the snow. We found a nice open snowy beach with a view of the lake and a few hills to play on. After an hour of goofing off heavy gray clouds blew in cramping our sunny fun. So we hoisted our packs and headed down the road. My buddies set up a great pace double poling down the softened snow. I'm getting old - working up a sweat to keep up on the way down! It took us 2.5 hours to ski up and 1 hour to ski down. Not bad for a geezer?