Snowshoe East Fork Foss River Trail

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Today was beautiful, so we drove Joe’s 4-wheel drive Nissan Xterra east to the Cascade Mountains to go snowshoeing for Jackie’s first time. Joe picked out the East Foss River Trail. It was before Steven’s Pass, after the Skykomish Ranger Station just off of Hwy 2. We drove nearly 2 miles to the end of the plowed road, but no one was parked at the end so Joe decided to go further to see what the conditions were like at the next trail, Tonga Ridge. The roadway was covered with about 2 feet deep of snow. After about a half mile there was a suburban that looked abandoned so Joe slowed down to take a closer look as we passed. Bad idea. We got stuck in a rut not used or packed down enough. He tried to rock the car out, but it wouldn’t budge. We dug the snow out in front and behind. No luck. I tried pushing to try and give some momentum, no. We were stuck in the snow. What a great start to the day! With this warmer weather and the sun out in all its glory, the snow had begun to melt at this spot of the road, making it soft and easier to get stuck.

We called AAA. They said that a tow truck can be there in 3 hours. 30 minutes later we get a call back that they will be there in an hour around noon. After many issues trying to reach the tow truck driver, we find out that we are .5 miles out of their range. They would not go onto the unplowed Forest Service Road which is “unmaintained” in the winter. We basically needed to figure out a way to get ourselves out on our own because no tow truck company would agree to get us out of this location.  

Fortunately Joe talked a few snowshoers that had just arrived, to help me push and try to get the Xterra out. It only took one other guy pushing with me to get us out of the rut. Joe continued to back the car down to the plowed parking area and I walked down to join him.

After a very eventful, stupid mistake to start our day, we were just happy to finally be out safe and able to snowshoe the rest of the afternoon.

The scene of the incident, check out the size of the rut where Jackie’s hiking pole is and one to match in the other tire wheel well along higher icy snow edge.

Ready to finally snowshoe.

The trail weaves through a beautiful old-growth forest along the bottom of a wide river valley. It is a gentle hike without slick steep slopes, a perfect first trail to begin with.
We ate some sandwiches and grapes and admired the frozen icicles along the rocks.

The Foss River bed below.

Pine needle caught in the snow.

The snowshoe trail.

Snowshoeing was a great activity for the 2 of us to do to spend time together after almost 2 weeks apart. We could talk endlessly about everything that’s been going on over that time.

I wore all kinds of layers since I always get cold. With the sun out, I was burning up. Halfway through our hike I was no longer wearing my jacket or hat and was down to 2 shirt layers.

More of the trail.

We watched a jeep with low tire pressure drive over tree logs over the road with no problems whatsoever. We have all the luck.
Our snowshoe gear which we bought for cheap on Craigslist.

Back at the snow incident scene.

I guess this road sign is good target practice?

On our drive home.

We stopped for dinner in Monroe at a Thai place. We agreed to share a bottle of wine when we got home and enjoy more time just the two of us. Note the engineer’s idea of an ice bucket for the bottle of white wine: my watering can. I do have to say it worked out well.