Walks with Moss: Copper Creek Trail Attempt

Nice new handrails on the Copper Creek trail thanks to the Mount Rose Trail crew

I wanted to get up high enough to get into the snow and out of the rain. Well I succeeded on getting into the snow. Wow, there was so much snow!   I had to turn around before I reached the loop because route finding was getting to difficult and the snow was getting too icy. My GPS does not work well in the valley this trail goes through, so it was no help; in fact I think it misled me a bit!    I reached about 2,600 feet, but I never did get out of the rain. Patches and I both got soaked today! It never stopped raining. I only took a five minute lunch break because Patches was shivering. Maybe I need to get her a coat to wear on these hikes. I did not realize how cold I was until I got home. Every layer I had on was soaked! I even managed to soak my spare "dry" socks inside of my pack!

Ah well, at least I kept my camera dry. Silly me, I packed my heavy DSLR and external flash all the way up there with me. I really was hoping to reach some dry snow, where I could take pictures.   There were lots of little waterfalls on the road next to Lake Cushman and the Skokomish river is flooding nicely.

It feels good to be home and dry! My legs are aching so I know I got a good work out.

It was about 6 miles with about 2,000 feet elevation gain.    Four of those six miles were on snowshoes in sloppy snow.    The snow ate one of my snow-baskets and I had to do some digging to get it out. Note to self: carry and extra snow basket.  I had to do a lot of tricky foot work today and I fell to my knees several times. I also tweaked my right ankle in every possible direction. Three of the times that I tweaked my ankle were painful, but my ankle does not hurt now. I hope that I built up some ankle strength and did not do any permanent damage.

When I first got to the trail head I was surprised to find two trucks parked there. No one can park at the trail head without a key. It turned out that the Mount Rose Trail crew was up there hard and work making handrails.   Those guys are my hero's!   One of the crew members recognized me as Mossy Mom.  Another member warned me of a steep snow bank where I dare not slip unless I wanted to fall into the river.

I found that snow bank all right, plus several other hazards.   Then on the drive home the wind started howling and a stick came down and hit my windshield. Yep, me and Patches had quite an adventure today.

The GPS said I went nine miles, but it was not working well in the valley with the barometric pressure changing fast. So I'm guessing on my mileage. My legs felt like they went closer to 14 miles, but I think I only went 6 miles.

I've been home about an hour and a half and I'm still cold!

6 miles
2,000 feet elevation gain

Today's track log is in red, it's not very accurate, the track points that are way off the trail have nothing to do with where I went. The blue track is the real trail. It looks like I missed the turn to start going up.