So, with the first weekend of the year upon me, and waking up to a typical rainy, cold, and grey Seattle day, I decided to get out of town! Following the advice of a recent trip report on the awesome Washington hiking site www.wta.org, I headed north on the 5 to Mt Vernon and the Chuckanut Mountains. These mountains are immediately adjacent to the Sound and are apparently utterly spectacular when the weather is nice. I parked at the trailhead for the Oyster Dome, and set off in all my rain gear up the steep hike in the pouring rain. Being by myself turned out to be rather exciting, as I immediately started thinking about mountain lions in the thick forest. I hit snow on the trail after a couple miles and a couple thousand feet of gain, and soon the pouring rain turned into thick falling snow. It was easy to make out the trail though, and the snowy forest scenery was spectacular. 
Since I didn't bring my snowshoes, my pace slowed and I eventually decided to turn around about 2 o clock, since I didn't want to risk losing daylight by myself. This hike was fantastic, and I didn't even get a chance to see what is supposed to make it so great - the view from the top of Oyster Dome looking out across the Puget Sound! I'll be back.
Since I didn't bring my snowshoes, my pace slowed and I eventually decided to turn around about 2 o clock, since I didn't want to risk losing daylight by myself. This hike was fantastic, and I didn't even get a chance to see what is supposed to make it so great - the view from the top of Oyster Dome looking out across the Puget Sound! I'll be back. 
No comments:
Post a Comment