The winter blog is back! It was a very busy off season this year, so am glad to be welcoming back snow! For those of us working behind the scenes, this snowfall can be exciting as all our work over the summer pays off and we get to finally go play.
We are in a warm cycle and there is about 1 foot of wet heavy snow.
There is a fair bit going on right now as the groomer operator artists and the snow plow experts are ramping up. If you go up this weekend, do not expect perfect grooming anywhere. Cabin Creek core area is rolled as seen in photo above. Above the "Y" there is plenty of snow and if you need a workout, head on up. New maps are posted on the Sno-Park pages, including one of Mt Amabilis that has the "Y" labeled.
Erling Stordahl typically needs 3 feet of snow before grooming as the trail bases are quite rough in places. Salmon La Sac is not scheduled for grooming this weekend. There is not enough snow for Hyak to Crystal Springs or Lake Easton State Park.
Right now there is a lot of "trail packing" going on and not all signs are up nor various other of those "wait for snow" details.
Did you know that the John Wayne Pioneer Trail in Iron Horse State Park is renamed to "Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail"? I am going to refer to it as P2C. Here is a link to a Seattle Times article.
The major change for this season is the parking configuration at Crystal Springs. Yowza, it is different. We can expect the days of foot deep slush to be behind us as they designed ginormous infiltration / snow storage swales, but it will be cozy parking and you will be driving on a dike. Please pay attention as it is a one way loop and non-motorized parking is the first left and at the very back. Motorized park in the 2 middle pods. If you plan on staying overnight, please park in the back just before the entrance to the back non-motorized lot which is the "mushers lot". This will help stretch snow plow funds and make it a whole lot easier for the snow removal in the front lot and saves spaces for Erling Stordahl day users.
Purchase your Sno-Park permit!
The CCWRC website is mostly up to date, but I am still working on the grooming and event schedules. I added a "Lesson" page and will update the home page with "news flashes" this season and will venture into Twitter. Our account is "WinterRec".
