Our party had swelled to five: me, Jeremy (upstream neighbor, Scott and Al (downstream neighbors, and Ross (friend of Jeremy). We had originally planned to go over the pass and around Lake Easton, but there had been a fair amount of snow on the west slopes and it had stayed cold so at the last minute I suggested we change our plans.
"You lead. I'll follow."
Now, that's the kind of hiking partner I like! (Well, sometimes. It does tend to get me into trouble on occasion.)
So we all piled into the truck and headed east. It's only 13 miles to the Denny Creek exit, which normally leads right to the Franklin Falls trailhead. I've been to Franklin Falls a couple of times (1 2), but always during the summer in good weather.
A half mile short of the trailhead the plowed road came to an abrupt end. "You can do it," said an anonymous voice from the truck, but it was pretty clear that the only thing that could be done by ramming the truck into the wall of snow and ice was spending money getting it towed out and then fixed. So we parked and geared up.
Scott and Al were brand new to snowshoeing having just bought their 'shoes. Jeremy had been with me once this year already and Ross had been out a couple of times.
Our route followed the old Snoqualmie Pass road up to the Franklin Falls trailhead about half a mile distant. There was no real need for snowshoes, but as it was so eloquently put, "We have them. Let's wear them." The snow was a hard base and about two inches of very dry powder on top. Two trenches were already well packed, but almost too narrow for snowshoes and definitely too narrow for the pulk. (DANG!)
At the trailhead we followed the river upstream. I'm pretty sure the winter route isn't the same as the summer route. There are spots where the trail, during the summer, is right at the river's edge. We were often way above the river and crossed some logs/snow bridges that I certainly don't recall. The two trails did intersect, though, because there were plenty of spots I did remember.
The only difficult part was a minor blowdown on the descent to Franklin Falls. The trench ended about 50 feet short of the falls themselves and that's probably for the best. The summer trail skirts a rock face that's tricky when wet and in the snow would have been a bad idea. Plus the Falls are right at the base of a big avalanche chute. Even though the danger was "moderate" I had no intention of going down to the base of the falls.
Or at least I didn't, until I looked at the Falls and thought about how cool it would be to get a picture close up. But with no moon and no clouds to reflect any light it was too dark for much of anything. We used headlamps to light the ice-covered waterfall for a couple of shots, but I'm dying to go back during the day.
The trip out was uneventful, as trips out almost always are. We hopped on the road where the trail and road come close to provide a little variety. The sky was pitch black with a full complement of stars. I set up for a photo and snapped the first one just before a shooting star crossed our field of view. Hmph.
It took only two hours to get out and back, not counting the 15 minutes we spent at the Falls getting cold. Total distance was 3.5 miles with 500 feet of gain according to TOPO.
