I needed to get out of town today. With colder temps everywhere and only the Sky running, I decided I wanted to get in a hike, and hopefully break in my new MSR snowshoes. The Olympic Peninsula had sunny skies forecasted, and I woke up early to catch the 7:10 Kingston ferry. I was at the "trailhead" for one of the OP snowshoe hikes in my book by 9:15. The hike itself was just up a gated road in the National Park, but it was very beautiful. Due to little snow accumulation over the last couple weeks there was a thick layer of ice, with maybe a quarter inch of powder from last night's snowfall on top. I ended up hiking most of the road, only putting on my snowshoes near the top. I hiked hard, mostly because it was REALLY grey and cold, but also because my book had mentioned a second gate as a landmark at 2.8 miles in. Since I never found that second gate I was pretty confused and thought I'd been hiking a long time for less than 2.8miles! I finally wound up at the Deer Park campground at 7.4 miles in at around 1pm. It was so cold I only hung out long enough to eat a snack and drink some ginger tea before heading back down. On the way down the sun burst through and blue sky opened up vistas of the Strait of Juan de Fuca all the way to the Cascades. Glorious. One highlight was all of the animal tracks in the fresh now - I hiked all the way back to the car following a new set of fox tracks that hadn't been there on my way up.
Hurricane Ridge across Wolf Creek valley in the afternoon light
Nice hoarfrost
Cliched but irresistable new gear shot. Not sure how cold it was up here, but I had icicles coming off my beard where my breath had condensed and frozen.
Pretty cool hike, definitely would come back if the snow was fresh and deep. Almost 15 miles was a bit brutal, but getting to Deer Park was worth it.
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