When there's snow in the mountains, the trailheads are often inaccessible. Best we could do was to park just off the freeway and climb through the forest. That's a bonus 500 feet of gain. Yay.

We had a pretty good idea where the trail lay. More or less. Kind of like you have a pretty good idea where the freeway is at night without your lights on. Sometimes we were in our lane, sometimes we were hitting the rumble strips. Once or twice we were bouncing across the median, but we never really lost the general direction.

Oh, except that time when the trail crossed that gully. You know the one. It's full of slide alder and vine maple. That's bad enough when there's no snow, but when there's enough snow to cover the branches, it's a snowshoe trap! Somehow, your snowshoe will go through, but then won't come out.

Our first views across the valley were all gray. The peaks on the other side of the river were imposing and severe. Back into the trees for a mile and the next time we looked out the sky was blue. Gray. Blue. Gray. Blue. It was seriously inconsistent, but at least it kept us interested.

The final stretch was on a well-trod trail. Even though it was snow-packed, it was easy to navigate and was the easiest part of the adventure. It was even easier than the drive back up the freeway to get the car we had started with.

More importantly, this walk down memory lane cooled me down while the temps in the now-time are getting perilously high. Next up: Avalanches and baby goats!