Elbo Creek Winter Hike

 Joined a nice group for a conditioning hike today. The plan was to hike up the Elbo Creek Trail until the snow got too deep (no snowshoes today). The hike is a 10 mile trek with the majority of the elevation gain in the first 2.5 miles. We got close to 2.5 miles with 1,860 ft of gain before turning around because the snow was a good foot deep. This is a hike in the woods if you don't make it to the end. This trail is across Hwy 101 from Mt Walker south of Quilcene on the north end of Hood Canal.

 The first part of the trail was snow free through a nice forest. I was told in the "old days" that this was the 30+ mile hike to Mt Townsend from Quilcene, with a couple of cabins they could stop at along the way.

 We reached snow more than 1000 ft up with a set of footprints ahead of us marking the way. The snow was fresh so we did not need to use traction.

















We had some peeks of Mt Walker through the trees and













 a glimpse of Mt Baker (zoom)

We were close to where this trail joins an old FR for the rest of the hike (up to Buck Mountain) when we reached snow of a good foot deep and decided to turn around here.

We turned around where there had been a large blowdown and good see Mt Townsend to the northeast.

A nice workout today!

Mount Walker Winter Hike

 Headed up to north Hood Canal to do the Mt Walker trail this morning. In the winter, the road is closed, but it is a very short walk to the trailhead. We hiked up the the North Viewpoint and back gaining 2,000 ft in 2 miles, before returning back the way we came.

View of Mt Walker from the closed road heading towards the trail. We could see snow below the summit.

 This is consistently steep hike through the forest. Lots of beautiful evergreen trees and lots of rhododendrons.

 About 2/3 of the way up, the trail was in the snow and became icy, so we put our microspikes on.

We had blue skies above us, but the view across Hood Canal and Puget Sound was cloudy.

Pano: looking northwest to north.

 Pano: looking north to northeast.

 The gray jays like to hang out at the summit.

Point No Point Beach Hike

We went up to the Point No Point Lighthouse Park in Hansville,  for a nice beach walk today. This is the oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound.

 Other side of the lighthouse:

There is a nice stretch of beach

Looking across Puget Sound to the east, we could see the snow capped North Cascades.

We walked about 1-1/2 miles down the beach.

Far to the southeast, we could see downtown Seattle and Mt Rainier








a few of the shorebirds we saw today:

 There is a nice marsh on the southwest side of the lighthouse








We saw several blue herons and ducks here.

Hurricane Ridge/Hill Snowshoe

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge at Olympic National Park today to go snowshoeing. The gate didn't open until 10 AM. Our plans were to head up toward Hurricane Hill, not sure how far we would go as the avalanche danger changed to "considerable" overnight. We snowshoed about 2/3's of the way there and back, going about 4 miles rt with a couple hundred of feet elevation gain. We had a lot of change in weather today. It was snowing sideways with limited visibility by the time we returned to the parking lot.

When we arrived at Hurricane Ridge, the skies were clear toward the east, but the beautiful mountains to the south were completely covered in clouds. The first part of the "trail" is the closed Hurricane Hill Road, it is 1.7 miles long.

 About 4 people had started out ahead of us, so we didn't need to lay down fresh tracks. We had blue sky come and go above us.

 Occasionally, we would have glimpses of snow covered peaks in the near distance.

 And then the clouds and snow would come, obscuring our view.

 The snow was soft and dry, beautiful to snowshoe in.

 After the "road" ends, we follow the Hurricane Hill "trail" until it skirts around the hills along the way. The slope where the summer trail goes is too steep for snow showing, so we headed up over those hills. Here we are on top of the first large hill, we weren't certain where the best place to go down the other side was, as there were no fresh tracks and I hadn't gone beyond this point in deep snow before. An experienced hiking group came by and we followed them for awhile.

We continued up and over the next large hill, seen in the picture to the left, staying up on the ridge line.

Just beyond that next hill, is Hurricane Hill. Before we reached the bottom of the second large hill, the clouds came down and it began snowing again. We decided to turn around in case it became white out conditions. Of course, after we turned around for a bit, it stopped snowing and the clouds lifted for awhile.

Heading back down as the visibility decreased.

We saw several gray jays along the way today.

 I love the snowy landscape!

As we hiked back to the "road", it cleared up for a bit and we could see down into the valley below,

 and also on the other side of the "road".

 Some of the snowy covered trees:

Bullion Basin Snowshoe

 Drove up to Crystal Mountain to snowshoe up to Bullion Basin. This is a 4 mile rt with about 1,500 ft of elevation gain. The trail is on the north side of the ski resort. We followed ski tracks towards the beginning of Trail 1156 (east towards Blue Bell Pass).

 We soon were laying down fresh tracks as there had been a couple of inches of snow overnight.

 We crossed a small bridge over Bullion Creek.

 We started out with a cloudy morning with a few snow flurries, the visibility was limited to close peaks.

There are a couple of avalanche chutes to cross. The snow appeared stable today.
 The trail takes us up around the left side of this peak.

 We had views of the Bluebell Pass area.

The sun was rising over the ridge as we entered Bullion Basin. We stopped here to enjoy the sun and eat lunch. We had the basin to ourselves today.

 As we headed back down the trail, the sky was clearing.

 We could see Mt Rainier peaking over the ridge at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort.











View of Crystal Mountain Ski area as we continued down the trail. Beautiful day outdoors!