| Snow Ranger Report |
Wednesday, December 27th, 2008
| Hey, let us know what you see out there! Send a couple photos along with your sledding, skiing, dog sledding, etc. photos. We are always very happy to hear from our trail friends. cleelumtrails@yahooo.com |
Hi everyone! Well, if you were stuck on the west side of the Cascades due to
flooding, road closures, or lack of luster after the big holiday meal, you’ll be happy
to know that you didn’t miss much over here. Rain on snow is the way of the
Cascades, and up until now, we’ve actually been spoiled with the cold
temperatures and dry snow. Well, get that Northwest rain gear out and dust it off
because we are back to our usually – Cascade Concrete.
The Sno-Parks were fairly empty today, which is unusual for this time of year; I
guess not too many people wanted to leave Seattle’s rain to play in the Cle Elum
version. Wet is wet, after all. We spent most of our time up the I-90 corridor.
Cabin Creek had been groomed, but had a soft ice cover on top of about three
inches of new, so skating would have been a chore. We spent most of our time
at Crystal Springs Sno-Park, which was actually busy with snowmobilers. It looks
like quite a few are spending the weekend, and maybe even the holiday week;
there were a lot of motorhomes and trailers. Crystal Springs has a redesigned
entry for non-motorized and motorized users from the Sno-Park to the groomed
system. The intent is to improve safety and reduce user conflicts. The entries
are very well signed so please help each other by checking out the new layout.
Crystal Springs Sno-Park is a really busy hub that caters to many different winter
sports. Please be courteous to one another. Generally speaking, everyone does
an amazing job at representing their sport with integrity, but there are the few…
I was skijoring (skate skiing with my dog pulling) last Wednesday and I was
using the snowmobile Lost lake groomed route. I must have been passed by 50
sleds that day, and EVERYONE was courteous and polite. It’s important for all of
us to remember that the one-percenters are in every group, but the majority of
people are just happy to have a nice place to recreate. Sorry, I don’t mean to
lecture, but we hear a lot of complaints about “other user-groups” and in reality,
most people are pretty darn nice regardless of what floats their boat in the
winter…Ahhhh, that was a bad choice of words considering the weather….
Back to the weather. Backcountry travel is ill-advised due to the rain on snow
effect. It’s just plain dangerous out there right now. We are expecting rain
through tomorrow, so please check the avalanche forecast before you head out
and choose safe groomed routes until things settle.
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season. Stay safe and live to play
another day! See you on the trail! - Mikki D reporting for Rangers Robin, Deb
(D2), and Danger Ranger Jon.
flooding, road closures, or lack of luster after the big holiday meal, you’ll be happy
to know that you didn’t miss much over here. Rain on snow is the way of the
Cascades, and up until now, we’ve actually been spoiled with the cold
temperatures and dry snow. Well, get that Northwest rain gear out and dust it off
because we are back to our usually – Cascade Concrete.
The Sno-Parks were fairly empty today, which is unusual for this time of year; I
guess not too many people wanted to leave Seattle’s rain to play in the Cle Elum
version. Wet is wet, after all. We spent most of our time up the I-90 corridor.
Cabin Creek had been groomed, but had a soft ice cover on top of about three
inches of new, so skating would have been a chore. We spent most of our time
at Crystal Springs Sno-Park, which was actually busy with snowmobilers. It looks
like quite a few are spending the weekend, and maybe even the holiday week;
there were a lot of motorhomes and trailers. Crystal Springs has a redesigned
entry for non-motorized and motorized users from the Sno-Park to the groomed
system. The intent is to improve safety and reduce user conflicts. The entries
are very well signed so please help each other by checking out the new layout.
Crystal Springs Sno-Park is a really busy hub that caters to many different winter
sports. Please be courteous to one another. Generally speaking, everyone does
an amazing job at representing their sport with integrity, but there are the few…
I was skijoring (skate skiing with my dog pulling) last Wednesday and I was
using the snowmobile Lost lake groomed route. I must have been passed by 50
sleds that day, and EVERYONE was courteous and polite. It’s important for all of
us to remember that the one-percenters are in every group, but the majority of
people are just happy to have a nice place to recreate. Sorry, I don’t mean to
lecture, but we hear a lot of complaints about “other user-groups” and in reality,
most people are pretty darn nice regardless of what floats their boat in the
winter…Ahhhh, that was a bad choice of words considering the weather….
Back to the weather. Backcountry travel is ill-advised due to the rain on snow
effect. It’s just plain dangerous out there right now. We are expecting rain
through tomorrow, so please check the avalanche forecast before you head out
and choose safe groomed routes until things settle.
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season. Stay safe and live to play
another day! See you on the trail! - Mikki D reporting for Rangers Robin, Deb
(D2), and Danger Ranger Jon.
| Dog-Power makes skiing really fun! |
| Heavy snow...yeah! |
