Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

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kepPNW
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Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by kepPNW » February 10th, 2013, 6:57 pm

Peder and I decided we'd "had enough!" of trees and forests and such and, yearning for some wide-open views, headed up into the blast zone Saturday. The weather had been absolutely gorgeous for a few days running. The VolcanoCam beckoned. Perhaps the easiest way to put it is, one of Jack's recent trips on Dog came up more than a few times...

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A clearing so magnificent, that blowdown 20' away is fully visible!
Can you see the standing tree 50' past that one?


Heh, it actually was a fabulous day up there. Though the views never quite materialized as we'd hoped, we did have a lot of chance to take monochrome photos in full living color. No need to get all artsy with the post-processing for this hike! The drive up was uneventful, SR-504 being well plowed and mostly free of ice (except a couple of persistently shaded curves). We seemed to be the first car up this morning, so we encountered a few groups of elk along the way. The highway is gated just past the Hummocks parking area, so we parked there about 7:30 and walked the mile or so up the road before hitting the South Coldwater trailhead. The snow was hard-packed. Seemed to have melted and refrozen a few times since any had fallen.

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Partially frozen pond, alongside SR-504 just prior to trailhead.

After perhaps a 1/2 mile through the woods, we pretty much followed an open ridge the rest of the way up.

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Snow very firm, so no need for snowshoes yet. They were helpful here on the way down.

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Coldwater Lake was largely ice-free.

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Coldwater Visitor's Center marked the cloud ceiling this fine morning.

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The view below was just fine, though. (It was a warm 28°F.)

The blowdown still offers considerable fascination, even 33 years later. This ridge was being actively logged in May 1980, a fact we saw much evidence of as we hiked. What trees were left, and blown over in the blast, were never salvaged. Being surrounded by a former forest, the views were unrelenting!

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Mystery suspension tree. It was as if that sapling was holding it up. Couldn't be! Right?

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A pirate's plank?

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Another monster at a much higher angle than most.

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Remains of a portable cable yarder used to haul downed logs up the hill to an awaiting truck.

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Bit closer view of the destroyed cable yarder.

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The driver's seat of the yarder.

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A nearby bulldozer, also destroyed on 18 May 1980.

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Peder passing through an area thick with blowdown.

As we passed through the 3700'-3800' range, we entered the cloud zone. From here on up, visibility ranged anywhere from 25' to an occasional clearing of up to perhaps 1000' or so. Depth perception was often disturbed. I found that if I was not actively looking at the ground, which I rarely did of course, I was often "surprised" by sudden changes in slope. We had to shift into navigation by GPS, largely, as visual navigation was mostly impossible. There were also some rather abrupt edges to the ridge in places, and staying pretty much in the middle of it was a Good Idea at this point. If I make it sound miserable, be assured, it was anything but! :)

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One of the last views down to Coldwater Lake, as we enter the clouds.

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When we could see 100', we'd often find a target to head towards.

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Lots of reality check pauses at this point.

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Decided to don the snowshoes a bit over 4100'. Probably could've done so a few hundred lower.

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Much of the ridgeline was actually very windswept, with soft spots only in more protected pockets.

Finally! What we had trekked all this way for!!! :)

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Blue sky! Whip out the cameras!

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Two minutes later, same outcrop. Ah well...

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As we crested a rise at about 4800', we could see the saddle where we'd meet the Coldwater Peak trail.

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One and a half minutes later, so long saddle...

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Peder was ready to make this junction, and hustled on ahead while I took photos.

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Clouds pushing up from the south were met with winds from the north. Dynamic place!

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A sign of humanity, telling us "Don't go there!"

We had hoped to make it all the way to the Boundary Trail, and get a look at Saint Helens Lake. We were now within about 400' vertically, and another 1.5 miles as the elk wanders. What lie ahead was mostly traversing slopes of 30-50°. We looked ahead, looked at each other, looked ahead, looked up, looked at each other... Thing was, when we looked ahead, we only caught glimpses of where we might want to go for periods of perhaps 5-10 seconds every couple-few minutes. It wasn't encouraging. Finally, we concluded "the view up there" was probably about the same as here - clouds. So, we took a few more photos and, since we were enjoying 40mph gusts and 25°F air temps, decided to descend a bit before finding a lunch spot.

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The view back towards the little rise we'd descended into the saddle.

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Five-second glipse of one potential "off-trail" (HA!) route that might avoid a very steep traverse.

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Time to head back. Clouds covering our route, again.

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Some pretty cool rime on the blowdown above 4700'.

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Found a nice dry "log with a view" at about 3700', and had a little lunch. Still 28°F.

After lunch, we just sort of cruised back down the ridge. I think we kept the snowshoes on most of the way, until we started hitting more and more open patches. The snow had gotten a bit softer as the day wore on, and the paddles just provided more help than hurt at this point.

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Passed the logging equipment one more time.

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We didn't come up with any really great explanations for the ice stretching across just the center of the lake?

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Look as we might, we never did see any surveillance gear. (Elk Cams?)

All said and done, it was a heckuva great day in the blast zone! What other kind is there?

http://gpsfly.org/gps_map.php?gps_id=2083&w=645&h=440

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9.9 miles, about 2700' EG.

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Best view of the day?

I marvel that this trip would not have been possible, had I not found this place and subsequently met Peder here. Special thanks to him for being such a good trail friend! I anticipate he may add a few more of his photos to round the report. :)
Karl
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Peder
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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by Peder » February 10th, 2013, 10:19 pm

Karl - Yes, we are both novices in snowshoeing, given that all of our collective experience is from 2013! You have included pretty much every snowflake and cloud in your report, so I will be brief: The whole area is under surveillance, so have you ever wondered what they see on their elk cams?
Surveillance.jpg
Ack! Ugly elk!
Our view most of the day was perfect for photoshopped pictures:
DSC02728.JPG
So do we put Mt Everest or Mt St Helens or Multnomah Falls in the background?
The views from the ridge should be fantastic, so I'm dying to go back and complete the outing in good weather. A few pictures of Karl from the excursion:
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Karl and logging stuff at the 3,500' level.
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Karl at it (actually we walked most of the way in parallel chatting).
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Close to our high point.
So, hopefully some PH'ers will join us for a re-run of this excursion later this spring! I am certainly looking forward to it!
Some people are really fit at eighty; thankfully I still have many years to get into shape…

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kepPNW
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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by kepPNW » February 11th, 2013, 6:46 am

Loved those panoramas you took, while I was off looking at that equipment and over into the lake! Wish I'd thought to do a couple more of those, myself, given how expansive the views where up there. This is definitely a must-do-again on one of those signature bluebird days. It could only get better! :)

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Crudely stitched together photo-pair of the Hummocks area. Including the human presence in yours --
both current and historical -- took them up to a much higher level!
Karl
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weathercrazy
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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by weathercrazy » February 11th, 2013, 11:03 am

My best guesses for the ice in the middle of the lake:

Inflow at the head of the lake and outflow at the end of the lake keep water moving, so ice is less likely to form.

And, at least from Google Earth, the lake narrows in the middle, creating an easier platform for ice to form.

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kepPNW
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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by kepPNW » February 11th, 2013, 12:06 pm

weathercrazy wrote:My best guesses for the ice in the middle of the lake:

Inflow at the head of the lake and outflow at the end of the lake keep water moving, so ice is less likely to form.

And, at least from Google Earth, the lake narrows in the middle, creating an easier platform for ice to form.
I like the idea of inflow/outflow influence. That was one we also discussed.

What may not have been quite obvious in the photo, was that there seemed to be a water channel atop the ice nearer the far (northern) side of the lake. And, I know it lacked good geographical context, but the ice was really stretching across what's probably the widest spot in the lake. (And maybe the deepest?)

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Taken from camera icon spot in Google Earth image below.

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Red lines showing approximate edges of ice.
Karl
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mcds
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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by mcds » February 11th, 2013, 4:44 pm

I'm envious, about this one too:
kepPNW wrote:Image
Five-second glipse of one potential "off-trail" (HA!) route that might avoid a very steep traverse.

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Re: Coldwater Ridge Beginner's Snowshoe, 9-Feb-2013

Post by kepPNW » February 11th, 2013, 6:01 pm

mcds wrote:I'm envious, about this one too:
That was just glorious, for the few moments we could see it, yep! We both agreed, that was the route to take, right through the area lit up there.

But in 10+ minutes on the saddle, I don't think that view appeared for a total of more than 10-15 seconds. We vowed to return. :)
Karl
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