SNOWTREK.org

I headed up the mountain loop highway, but the road was closed up towards Red Bridge. There was a little snow on the sides of the road, but not much. So, I turned around and went up the road to the Pilchuck trailhead. The snow wasn't that deep, but I was driving my 2wd Honda with moderate tread, so I didn't know how far I'd make it.



It looked as though I was the only 2wd that tried it. I passed a few trucks parked on the side of the road. About 1/2 way up, the road got less slushy and more packed, and the ruts were filled with packed snow instead of bare road. I had a little more trouble keeping traction, but kept going. About 3/4 of the way to the trailhead, I had to stop on a steeper section of hill because there were two pickups stuck in the middle of the road. Actually, one was stuck and one was trying to pull the other out... but the end result was the same. I tried to get moving again, and couldn't get started uphill. I figured that was as good a time as any to turn around, so I backed down to a safe spot and headed back down the hill a bit to a place that I could reliably get off the road, stop, and then start again. When I got out of the packed ruts, it was pretty slick, and hard to maneuver my car.



Anyway, I stopped maybe a mile back down the hill and took a quick hike around. Too cloudy to get any good photos, but I snapped a couple anyway.

- Matt

I expected a bit more snow. Did you make it to where the road turns back to pavement?....if you could tell.

I had been wondering if the gate was going to be closed.

Wait a sec, the mountain loop was closed? So we can't go snowshoeing into the big four ice caves?

My guess is that the mountain loop highway was closed because of fallen trees from the storm last week, not because of snow. There were tons of trees that had been cleared from the road.