Indian Creek Snowshoe

We drove out to the 29 Pines SnoPark in the Teanaways to snowshoe up Indian Creek (or the ridge between Indian Creek and Jack Creek. Our route was 4.5 miles with 800 ft of gain. From the SnoPark, we walked 0.6 miles back down along the road. We missed the turnoff to the closed road going up the ridge at 0.3 miles from where we parked. We didn't see any other people on our trip this morning. 

We saw what looked like a connector route to the closed road, put on our snowshoes and headed up this way.

There was a small creek to cross before reaching the closed road, my companion waded across the creek, I was able to jump across,

when I landed, one foot went into a hole and I slipped into the snow. Fortunately, I did not fall backwards into the creek. We decided when we completed this ridge hike we would not return this way.

It was easy to follow the closed road up along the ridge.

Besides an old set of ski tracks and a set of footprints, we followed what looked like coyote prints for quite a ways.

Up at the end of the ridge, there is a large interesting rock formation.

Although the day was cloudy, we could see some snowy hillsides through the trees. 

On our way down, we were able to go cross country to join a connecting closed road to the original road we began on, to make a bit of a loop.

Further down, we saw what appeared to be either large coyote or maybe small wolf prints in the snow.

Another peekaboo view on our way back down. Our snowshoe was a bit slow as the snow kept sticking and clumping to the bottom of our snowshoes. We got a good leg workout on this short trek.

 

Indian Creek Teanaway Community Forest

We headed up the North Fork Teanaway Road to explore around Indian Creek.  We were able to park off the road without blocking the gate. We created a loop using our gps and topo map. We hiked 5.6 miles with 950 ft of gain overall. The areas with snow was firm but not icy so we did not use our snowshoes our traction today.

We headed northeastward around a knoll, making our way through the forest.

We were hoping to get some views of Mt Stuart, and we occasionally had a few glimpses over and thought the trees.

We saw several animal prints in the snow, including this large cat print.

We found a lovely pond.

The trees prevented us from seeing the peaks to the north and east.
We made our way over to what we think was Wetland Jack Road and up to a ridge of 3405'.










We had a glimpse of Mt Stuart and Ingalls peaks.

Further along this ridge, we found this large rock formation.

We decided not to descend down the south slope here, as it was very steep.

When we headed back down a bit on the ridge, we could see Mt Rainer to the southwest!
















zoom of Rainier

Part way down the ridge, we looked for an alternate way down off the ridge to Indian Creek and took a lunch break in a sunny meadow.

As we descended down this slope, we saw a small waterfall.

Along the closed Indian Creek Road.

Although there weren't views in the valley of Indian Creek, it was nice to be hiking in the sun under blue skies!

Back on the main road, we had a nice view of Mt Stuart.