After some grueling workouts
earlier in the week, I elected to do an easier and shorter hike this
weekend, namely
Heather Lake.
I knew it was going to be an interesting morning as I got a speeding ticket
while I was driving to the trail. Following that I had to deal with the remnants
of the Great
Snowstorm of 2002™,
however my car
drove thru the snow like a champ.
Accompanying me this week was my girlfriend, Ellen
,
who got the opportunity to use
snowshoes for the first time.
As we started up the short 2.2
miles to the lake, we walked thru a second growth forest, which contained these
enormous stumps
from the former old growth
trees that used to occupy this area. This was mildly depressing, however we
would soon move from a second growth forest to a living old growth forest, where
we stumbled upon some really unique features. I literally bumped into this
old growth tree
that contained fungi growing
up the entire trunk, and these ice crystals
which grew horizontally
instead of vertically. I found this unique as I have never seen ice grow
parallel to the ground. My guess is that this ice was formed from very tiny
droplets of water seeping thru the dirt.
Finally, we made it to the lake,
however much to our chagrin, there were no avalanches falling from
Mt.
Pilchuck which is atypical for this hike. Watching the avalanches (from a
safe distance) is a rather fun endeavor that I'd suggest others should witness.
Heather Lake was frozen,
as you'd expect this time of
year, and there were some frozen waterfalls
that were running down the
sides of the adjacent mountains.
Overall, this was fun, non strenous hike.