12/27/17 Rattlesnake National Recreation Area

Junction with the trail heading toward Kench Meadow

On the 27th of December, I headed out on my own, back to the Rattlesnake.  Not being in the mood for as long of a ski as I had done on my first day, only five days earlier, I turned up the trail up Spring Gulch, half a mile from the trailhead.  This is a loop I had done a number of times, and I really enjoyed the work of the initial mellow climb in the first two miles and the downhill that followed on the other side of the creek to get back to the main stem trail.  Once again, I had gotten an early start, and I was cutting the most-recent tracks in the fresh snow.  The snow was good, and I was having a blast.

Trail heading back down

I made it to the junction with the trail to Kench Meadow and beyond and decided to head up that trail a little to check the conditions.  I eventually wanted to ski the Wallman Trail and this trail would be the way to end that loop.  I skied up the trail a bit.  The brush, like below me on the trail I had already skied, was heavy with fresh snow and hanging into the trail in spots.  Even some larger trees, like birch and some smaller larch, were hanging over the trail, weighted down by the heavy snow.  I would stop to knock snow off when I could.  After only five minutes or so, I was pleased with the conditions and the trail ahead of me did not look too steep.  I turned around and headed back down to the junction.

Once there, I headed down the east side of Spring Gulch.  That trail was fun, but since no one had tracked out the snow yet, it was a little slow.  As this was my favorite part of the loop, I decided to loop the upper section again, and when I made it down to the outhouse at the one-mile point, I cut across to the trail I had skied up and skied back up to the trail junction again.  The second time down, going over my tracks again, was much better and enjoyable.  I made it back down to the outhouse much more quickly and found that there were now ski tracks on this side of the gulch.  I easily followed the trail back down to the main stem trail and then back to the trailhead.

12/25/17 Holland Lake

Carrie skiing along Holland Lake

On Christmas morning we woke up and made some breakfast, packed up, and cleaned the cabin.  We then drove down to the road junction near the picnic area and skied back out onto the lake.  We followed our tracks along the lovely, flat lake back past the lodge and all the way to the trailhead.  From there we decided to ski our tracks from the trailhead back to the vehicle.  Despite feeling like we had climbed most of the way to the trailhead the previous day, skiing down the road surprisingly did not feel like going down.  We had to work much harder along the road and ultimately should have stayed on the lake for our return.  We had had three great days of skiing in the area with two of them on Holland Lake itself.  I hope someday to return for more skiing on the frozen lake.  The photos here were taken the day before.

View of the peaks southeast of the lake

Hoar frost on the lake ice

12/24/17 Holland Lake

Owl Creek Cabin

On the 24th we had a mellow morning and skied out of the cabin and down the road to Holland Lake.  We stopped at the bridge over the outlet and enjoyed some spectacular views of the peaks beyond the head of the lake.  We had an initial plan to see if we could ski to the falls, so from the bridge at the outlet we skied up the road to the trailhead.  There were one or two tracks from vehicles driving up to the trailhead, but the snow was deep and not many people decided that driving to the trailhead was a good idea.  Because of the tracks on the road, we skied on the edge in the fresh tracks.  At one point, Carrie noted that we should just head down to the lake and ski on it, but we didn't listen to reason and instead carried on along the road until we reached the trailhead.  There was one car there, which had held the snowshoers whose tracks we could see at the trailhead and along the trail.

View from the outlet

From the trailhead, the trail drops toward the lake and eventually goes right by it.  We decided here to leave the trail and to just ski on the lake.  It had been quite cold for some time, and we felt pretty confident that the lake ice was thick enough for us.  We still skied hesitantly at first and found our confidence and still stayed pretty close to the shore.  Some snowshoers had left their tracks on the snow on the lake ice just in the little bay and on a small island that was closest to where the trail neared the lake, but they did not carry on beyond the small island.  We skied to the small island and then set out going up the lake.  The day was beautiful and sunny.  There were incredible views ahead of us up the lake and beyond, and there were some pretty great views behind us as well of the Mission Mountains.

With Carrie on Holland Lake

At some point up the lake, we came to another bay.  Instead of skiing along the shore all the way around it, I decided to set out across the narrow neck of water between the shore and the point of land on the other side.  Nearly across, I heard a bit of a crack in the ice and then quickly skied to the snow-covered solid ground.  I turned and warned the others, but they were most of the way across and spread out enough I figured they would be okay.  Carrie said she had heard some cracking as well.  As Rebecca seemed to be the most uncomfortable with the skiing on ice, we didn't make a big deal out of the cracking ice.  We did, however, decide to follow the shoreline more closely on the way back to not take any more chances.

Carrie, Rebecca, and Jeff ski back toward the foot of the lake

Beyond the bay crossing, we stayed along the shore, skiing further and further up the lake.  At one point, we saw where the trail neared the lake again and talked about climbing up to it and trying to follow it to the falls, but no one really cared if we made it to the falls or continued skiing along the perfectly flat and beautiful lake.  As we made it further up the lake, there were a couple little streams that we could see and hear, flowing down into the lake.  Most were small enough to be icy as they came out onto the rocky shore, but warm enough to melt out the lake ice just a little where the waters met.  Skiing around some of these stream holes made us contemplate how thick and strong the ice was and if we were making the right decision.  We had to go around a couple trees that had fallen in the water and frozen where they were, and these spots also felt a little more dangerous.

Skiing with the sun setting

Eventually we decided we had gone far enough and stopped for a rest and snack.  No one was very interested in trying to get to the falls—it looked like we would have to climb a bit to find the trail and then climb more to get to the falls.  From the lake, we could see the gash in the mountainside where the falls were, and we were content being on the lake.  We talked briefly about skiing around the lake, but after a brief scout ahead after break, we saw that there was open water near the inlet and we were quickly turned around.  We followed our tracks back to the trailhead, except for where we contoured around the ice-crack bay, and then decided to ski the lake back to the foot instead of taking our tracks back from the trailhead.

View back across Holland Lake

We skied past a lodge and enjoyed the view and solitude from a point on the lake, which likely swarmed with tourists and guests all throughout the summer months.  We enjoyed the great snow and the perfectly flat terrain.  I grew braver and would cut off some of the contours, but usually a good scolding from Carrie would have me falling back in line on the shore.  At the picnic area, we skied off the lake and back to the road at the bridge.  We followed the road easily back to the cabin and enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve with good food and festivities.