Cowiche Canyon

The Cowiche Canyon Conservancy is a series of 4 trails along an abandoned railroad corridor. There is the canyon trail itself, a 6 mile round trip hike of the old RR right-of-way, a hill climb for views of Cowiche Mountain and the sagebrush plain before it, a jaunt to a winery(?) and a hike to the top of Cowiche Mountain.
Today we did the canyon trail and the winery detour.
Cowiche Creek has a pretty good flow and so the vegitation in the valley is lush, at least compared to the sage/steppe country around it. As you'll notice driving around the orchards and vineyards of the Yakima are, if you water something in this warm valley it will grow well. And with the plants come animals. We saw a gopher snake (but not until about 4 feet away), red tail hawks and a legion of violet-green swallows.
The first 3 of 11 bridge crossings of Cowiche Creek are gone, thanks to one of the neighbors who tried to stop the trail with a little pre-emptive strike by having them removed, but despite that the trail opened with detours to keep your boots dry. Be sure to be pleasant and unobtrusive to the folks who live here, respecting their property and privacy. Be sure to look for the giant stone head too, you'll know it when you see it.
The trip to the winery is worthwhile too. The 1 mile round trip, 400' Elevation gain yeilds some nice views of the canyon and Cowiche Mountain, as as advertised delivers you at a winery and tasting room (open Sundays!) where for $5 you can sample the local wares, all of which are for sale on site
This canyon is great for a short stroll or an all day adventure, because you can hike up to 14 milkes of trail here.

Umtanum Canyon

Umtanum Canyon is one of my favorite spring hikes. When six months of overcast, drizzle and 30 to 50 degree temperatures are starting to wear on you, just motorvate over the hill to central Washington and reacquaint yourself with dust. Spring is also the best time to see wildflowers in bloom here.
Umtanum Canyon is just a few miles south of Ellensberg on the Yakima Canyon road. The canyon itself is on BLM property, but just outside the canyon is the L.T. Murray Wildlife Recreation Area (where the deer and antelope play? Not exactly, the WRA's used to be called "game reserves" in times of less delicate sensibilities) and wildlife viewing opportunities abound. We saw elk (just outside of Roslyn) and big horn sheep (in the Yakima River Canyon about 4 miles from Umtanum), as well as quail, thrushes, pelicans (in the Yakima River) and swallows.
The trailhead parking lot is often pretty full, as it is popular with people fishing or rafting, so best to arrive early or on a weekday. The trail begins with a nice suspension bridge that sways when you walk on it, then a short trail under the Railroad tracks and you're in Umtanum canyon. Follow the creek for the next 3 1/4 miles (where the trail ends in a closure to protect wildlife between Feb. 1st and July 15th), or when open proceed another couple miles to Umtanum Falls, a trail which can be accessed separately from another trailhead off of Wenas Road.
Along the way you can see wild apple trees, descended from a small orchard that was part of a homestead here in the 1880's but have gone untended for decades. You'll find the only cactus I know of that grow naturally in this state, and lots of wildflowers like larkspur, balsamroot, lupine and desert parsley. There are also the less colorful but equally beautiful sagebrush, rabbitbrush and bunchgrass, and a large, lovely grove of quaking aspen.
There is a creek crossing involved, but the creek is narrow and shallow and there are usually logs to walk across. The beavers along the creek have been , well, busy as beavers, and we saw at least a dozen dams at various points along the way. There are also snakes to be aware of, both rattlesnakes and gopher snakes, the latter not poisonous but with fangs that still hurt and oh yes, gopher snakes can climb and are occasionally spotted hanging from a tree branch. Remember to look down and up. Speaking of up, the more ambitious will want to explore the trail that leads to your left just after crossing the RR tracks at the beginning of the trail, which in about 1 mile (600' elev. gain) leads to a nice overlook of the Yakima River and its canyon.
Be sure to save time for a drive down the Yakima canyon. There are some beautiful sights (such as the aforementioned big horn sheep & pelicans) between here and Selah, and some turnouts to stop and admire the view.

Wallace Falls State Park

This is a true gem of a park. It can be hiked in all four seasons. It offers hikes for all ages and abilities, from short, level strolls along the river to long, switchback filled trails leading to mountain lakes. It's a short drive from the teaming hordes of Pugetopolis, but can offer solitude for those willing to go the extra mile. It is even accessible by Community Transit bus (Route 270 and 271).
We did a 13 mile loop trip along the Wallace River to the lower, middle and upper falls, then up to the ridge line below Mount Stickney to Wallace Lake and Jay Lake, returning down the North Fork Wallace River via the Greg Ball trail.
The beauty of Wallace Falls state Park is that there is no one set itinerary. Feel free to mix and match to suit your abilities and needs. The DNR roads make for great winter snowshoe access to Wallace Lake. For summer time fishing, head to the lake via the Greg Ball trail. For solitude, explore Jay Lake or even bushwhack your way to Shaw Lake. The only constraints are time (sorry, day hikes only) and your imagination.
I can't say enough about the infrastructure here. The trails are full of benches, bridges and stairs. The staff does a great job of keeping the trails free of blowdowns and making sure the trail is in good repair year round. If you see a trail crew, be sure to say thanks. Many are volunteers working for the Washington Trails Association; along with your thanks, donations of money and/or labor are gladly accepted. There are even a couple nice segments built by kids as Eagle Scout projects.
Wallace Falls also needs people to watch over it to keep it safe from the budget axe. The fate of the park is currently in question, with some short sighted and cowardly legislators plotting to close Wallace Falls to save $181,000 in annual operating costs, or a savings of about 32 cents for each Snohomish County resident. Mothballing the park would allow the trails to deteriorate, encourage vandalism and make it that much harder for families to get kids out into the woods. Surely keeping this park open is worth the price of 1/6th of a cup of coffee per capita per year. If you're reading this and the legislature's still in session, write, email, call and howl until Wallace Falls State Park is off the chopping block!

Blanchard Mountain

Blanchard Mountain is the only mountain in the Cascade range that actually touches salt water, rising over 2000' from Samish Bay on Puget Sound. Located in Northwest Washington along Chuckanut drive, Blanchard contains several hikes that can be done seperately or as part of a loop trail. Today we did the Oyster Dome/Lily Lake/Samish Overlook loop, in my humble opinion the best way to see the mountain.
We started on the west side at the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) trailhead. The trail begins an immediate and relentless march up for the next mile and a half. At 1000' elevation there's a small bench and your first clear view out over the San Juan Islands. This is a good place to have a drink of water (you should have worked up a good sweat by now) and a handful of trail mix, but don't get too complacent, you're only half way to the Dome. Keep going up (and up and up...) until you see the sign for the Talus Trail. Follow this short detour to the Bat Caves, which aren't caves at all but large boulders that create a talus slope at the base of the Dome's 400' cliff. Take a moment to admire the view; you'll be looking down from there in a few minutes. Try to stay out of the caves, to protect the bats from you and protect you from the boulders, which are unstable and dangerous.
Go back to the main trail and head up the main trail to Oyster Dome. You'll eventually emerge on to a gently sloping rock dome with stunning views of the San Juan's and the Olympic Mountains, as well as the Samish and Skagit delta's. Don't expect solitude here. This is a very popular hike, and on the first sunny, warm Sunday of spring we shared our lunch break with 40 to 50 others.
Solitude isn't impossible to find here, however. We left the Dome by way of the Lily Lake trail. We passed two people and saw the bootprints of 4 or 5 more, but by the time we got to Lily Lake just a mile from the crowded Dome, we were completely alone at a pretty, frozen, snowy mountain lake, where we took an uninterupted 45 minute pause. There are some nice campsites here, and also another mile away at Lizard Lake, a smaller, less visited spot that's just far enough off the main track to make it peaceful and, after sunset, probably a private campsite.
From Lily Lake, we headed for Samish Overlook via the PNT (the trail we started on and at the end of which our truck - we hope - is waitnig to take us home). Samish Overlook is accessible by car, and is a popular launching spot for hang gliders and parasailers...or is it parasailors? In any case, you can see folks lined up to take the plunge, and may even see eagles joining in the fun, looking for the same thermals as their nylon winged counterpats. This was a fun place to people watch too. We match a woman dressed for a cocktail lounge but snapping photos of raptors, a man in a bizzare 1980's sedan fitted with strange multple antennae trying to talking to hamm radio operators from Sverdlovsk to Auckland, a very Federico Fellini/Northern Exposure assortment. This is another nice place to take a break and take it all in.
From here the walk back was an easy 2 mile down hill stroll. The whole loop was about 9 miles, with almost all of the elevation on the first 1/3 up to the Oyster Dome. We hiked the whole thing between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, although the trail could easily be done in 4 hours by the ambitious and impatient. But at a beautiful hike like this who wants to hurry?

Artist Point on Koma Kulshan (Mt. Baker)

The Artists Point trail on Mount Baker is a beautiful, fairly easy snowshoe hike to nice views of the North Cascades. The trip starts in the ski area at 4000'. Follow the west edge of the ski area uphill, and after 500' elevation gain you'll see a "Backcountry Warning" sign, which means you've reached Austin Pass. Read & heed the sign, because you are crossing into North Cascades wilderness in winter, and the weather can change suddenly and drastically here. Our first attempt (below) was abandoned when we ran into a major winter storm.
This day, however, the weather was with us, partly sunny with high clouds, an increasing chance of snow by evening. At Austin Pass, we followed the tracks of about 40 other snowshoers and numerous backcountry skiers. Yes, this is wilderness, but don't expext solitude on this popular hike. If you do find it empty during ski season, there's probably a reason. Be sure to inquire locally about avalanche conditions. We followed a couple long switchbacks, sticking to the edge of the tree line to minimize avalanche danger.
The view was lovely from the top at artists point, although increasing and lowering clouds obscured views of Baker and Mount Shuksan. After about an hour and a half, we noticed we were the only ones still up there (uh oh) and the clouds lowered, it started snowing and visibility went down to about 300 feet (oh no!). This illustrates why following snowshoe prints may get you somewhere, but won't always get you back. A map, compass and knowledge to use them are essential. A gps helps too, especially when visability is reduced. Ours had a tracking feature, a black line that traces your route. Just don't deviate as you head back and you'll end up where you started.
This is a great trail even for winter novices like us (only our 3rr snowshoe), as long as you do your homework and respect the mountain. In summer, it's also a great access route to Ptarmigan Ridge at the edge of Kulshan's glaciers, a hike I hope to post here later this summer.

Know Your Limits!

We had set out to snowshoe to Artists Point on Koma Kulshan (Mount Baker) on a rainy February day, hoping to climb above snow level, and ended up getting more than we bargained for. It was snowing lightly when we got to the ski area parking lot, the trailhead for our hike, so we strapped on the 'shoes and headed out. Within 1/2 hour the weather had changed dramatically. Visibility dropped to 1/2 mile, then 1/4 mile and finally to 1/10 mile. The wind rose and blew the snow almost horizontally, making it hard to see 100' ahead.
We didn't have a topo map, hoping to follow the tracks of other snowshoers and relying on a GPS tracker to retrace our steps if need be. What we didn't count on was that there would be snowshoers going in many directions, or that the wind and snow would quickly obliterate their tracks and ours. Well, this was only our second snowshoe hike, and we obviously have much to learn.
After gaining a few hundred feet in elevation we encountered a sign with ominous warnings like "rescue may not be possible" and "your heirs may be fined $500". My heirs? That got my attention. So did the experienced skier who warned us that avalanche danger was increasing as the day wore on and oh, by the way, the trail we were looking for was on the next ridge over. We decided that discretion is the better part of valor and made a gradual retreat back to the truck.
If the weather was sunny our hike would have been just fine, and we plan to go back (with a topo map next time), but good judgement is as important as good gear in the backcountry, and forging ahead would have been a potentially fatal mistake. If you're unsure whether you can safely procede, don't. There's always another day. Besides, being too goal oriented is linear thinking at its worst. The journey is the destination, and we had a lovely if brief stroll through a winter storm at 5000' in the North Cascades, got a chance to test our winter gear under severe conditions (we stayed warm and dry) and got some nice pictures.

Mallardy Road

When I go hiking, I want to get away from roads, park the car at the trailhead and get out on my own two feet. So why am I writing about a road?
First, because Mallardy Road is beautiful, and second, because flood damage has made the road impassable to cars after 1.2 miles, it is a defacto trail. During summer you'll find very few cars on the road, since they can no longer reach the Mallardy Ridge trailhead 7 miles from the Stillaguamish River. It's an easy walk that is lined with salmonberries through second growth timber, passing a quiet pond and crossing Mallardy Creek at the start (its confluence with the South Fork Stilly) and 2 1/2 miles later on a bridge slated for repair in the fall of 2009.
During winter it takes on a whole new character. Cars can go no farther than the Mountain Loop highway, and if you procede on skis or snowshoes you soon enter a realm of peace and quiet, the only sounds are those of birds and the gentle murmur of the creek. Forest Service roads, dusty and noisy in summer, become still and wonderous in winter. The wide lanes and gentle grades make for excellent snowshoe trails, and their are so many miles of them that solitude is almost guaranteed, except in those places where snowmobiles and their infernal combustion engines shatter the peace so that fat, lazy people can sit on their asses while leaving a trail of smoke and decibels in their wake.
The hike up Mallardy Road is only limited by the time and energy you want to commit. For a short day hike, the bridge over the creek is a good turn around point. If you want to stay for a day or two, you can hike the 7 miles to the trailhead and then go for another 7 to 10 miles to the ridge itself, although you can expect to have to negotiate numerous blowdowns along the trail, which hasn't seen maintenance for a couple years. The payoff for all that work is the expectation of a solitude more complete than almost any other trail in Western washington.