Last Saturday I was having major skiing urges, but needed a place that was close and where I could drive to the snowline (no good snow tires on our cheap Civic). Parked at a major snowbank on the road that someone got stuck on with their Accord. Then it was a 2 mile ski up to the cliffs above Wildcat Quarry where a nice view is afforded of the ancient Old Cascade peaks of Old Baldy, Githens Mtn., and Tumala Mtn across the Eagle Creek Valley.
When I started the day around 11 AM, there were two parties of illegal target shooters near the snowbank on NF-36. One was out of sight, shooting very close to the road, probably off into the valley. The other party was in sight, with a relatively safe backstop. I chatted it up with them, and we questioned the tactics of the unseen party...
I'm sure the County or MHNF could easily pay for the cost of extra patrol by going up there once a week on Saturday and fining the illegal shooters who are present in rain, snow, and sun all four seasons.
Anyways, I was the only one up there judging by the lack of any tracks on the 2 inches of fresh snow from the night before. It had changed from rain to snow, so there was sticky, saturated snow underneath the fresh.
It is a pleasant ski on NF-36 to the 105 spur road, passing two minor creeks, and then the cascading N Fork of Eagle Creek, which rushes along nicely. Finally made it to the summer parking area:
There was enough snow to ski the decommissioned old road up to the Quarry, which was quite fun with all the berms meant to deter 4 x 4s. Lots of snowshoe hare (I believe) tracks on this section. View from the top:
Then up to the quarry for a nice view looking up Eagle Creek valley:
I was getting hungry, so I skied up the Douglas trail through the forest above the quarry to the cliff edge viewpoints and had some lunch, watching the day get sunnier and warmer in the total mountain silence.
Wildcat Mountain:
Some shots of my favorite Noble Fir I've encountered:
It got so warm I took my shirt off at one point and soaked it up for 20 minutes! Then the clouds came back, so I attempted a grainy selfie:
Skiing down was really fun, and I came across a quiet, empty road with no target shooters. The sun shone, birds were chirping in a nice layered chorus, and I couldn't believe I had skis on.
