Keechelus Lake - John Wayne Trail Snowshoe



I'm slowly working my way into the Cascades to see what it has to offer so we packed up our snowshoes and headed out to Snoqualmie Pass. The Keechelus Lake - John Wayne Snowshoe is right after the ski resort at Snoqualmie as you follow I-90 east towards Eastern Washington and it goes along the west side of Keechelus Lake (that big lake to your right when you're driving on the freeway). I'm confused as to whether it's called the Keechelus Lake trail, the John Wayne Trail, or the Iron Horse Trail! It seems all of those are intertwined somehow. I got the idea to go here from WTA and they call it the Keechelus Lake - John Wayne Snowshoe ...so that is what I shall refer to it as!

The trail starts at the Hyak Sno-Park and you need a permit to park here. Before we got to the park we stopped in North Bend to buy our day pass because we weren't sure if the parking lot was staffed and could buy them there. It turned out you can buy your permits at the Hyak Sno-Park, just get in line on your way in to park! A day permit is $20 but you must have a Discovery Pass to pair it with. Without a Discovery Pass you can buy a Season Sno-Park Permit for $40 good for all winter. Some sno-parks, like the Hyak, are groomed so a regular season permit will NOT work for these 8 sno-parks alone. You must buy the Season Permit ($40) AND a Special Groomed Trails Permit (another $40), that's $80 for the season is you plan to snowshoe at any of the 8 special groomed trails. A nice perk about the day permit , though, is that you only need that one pass and it will cover the special groomed trails for the day as well.

The 8 special groomed trails are:
Cabin Creek, Chiwawa, Crystal Springs, Hyak, Lake Easton, Lake Wenatchee, Mount Spokane, Nason Ridge.

Being my first time to a sno-park I was surprised to see all the activity! There are areas for children to sled and play and the trail was very wide and groomed allowing much room for all the people participating in winter activities. There were tons of people out there, I've never seen so many people with cross country skiis, probably because I've never been to a place where you could X/C ski. Being a snowshoer we stayed off to the side of the groomed trail, mainly meant for the X/C skiiers, but there were many snowshoers out there also so the narrow trail on the bank was well defined also. They had a tent set up with hot coco, which we planned to stop on the way back but they were already gone by the time we finished.


The groomed trail is very boring. We know this because we came back on the main trail...it's flat and straight and you only get a couple peekaboos of the lake through the trees. What we did, and by the looks of the trail so did most other snowshoers, was go down the road towards the boat launch so we were able to hike along the lake and away from all the skiiers. At the launch we followed the trail that ended up climbing up the bank to the ski highway. A few minutes later, becoming bored of the main trail, we slid down the embankment to go back towards the lake and found the other snowshoe route that stayed along the lake...much better.














It snowed non stop the entire time we were up there making it a difficult to notice the cars zooming by on I-90 across the snow covered Keechelus Lake. You could hear them a little bit, but I only noticed them when I was trying to notice. Once we got on the trail along the lake we only crossed paths with one other couple coming the opposite way. It was so serene, we were far enough from the main path that we couldn't see or hear anyone.

Never would I have expected to see myself on the other side of this lake...I don't think I realized you could go over there before. Hiking in the Olympic Mountains I am used to being farther away from civilization, we're a little spoiled over there I think, so that's something I'll have to get used to in the Cascades. being closer to the bigger cities I shouldn't be surprised that there will be many more people out there.

Overall we were out there about 3.5 hours. We took our time and didn't go all the way to the end of the lake before advenuring up through the tree line back to take the road back. Maybe almost 4 miles total...I wish I had my GPS so I knew for sure!

What a great day spent outside!

Looks like ice cream scoops!

Looking towards the lake from the road.

Chasing stars

As I look over my blog the last trip I posted was about the Persieds Meteor Shower and now I am determined to be prepared for the upcoming meteor showers of 2013. I am doing my research this time, and even though I know very little about astronomy I am completely fascinated with it. What else can make you feel so incredibly small as much as the UNIVERSE does!? My interest in star gazing has only been intensified as I have taken up backpacking, especially to the coast where you can see stars so clearly and they are EVERYWHERE!

It quickly became apparent there’s more to know about meteors to plan out watching them. I barely know what any of it means…what’s the difference between a fast meteor and a slow one? (25,000 mph being "slow" and 160,000 mph being fast) Do you see one better than the other? For some there are only a couple per hour while others there are dozens or even hundreds per hour. There are tons of showers annually, which ones do I try to see?  

There are 7 major meteor showers throughout the year we can see from the State:

Quadrantids

Lyrids

Eta Aquarids

Perseids

Orionids

Leonids

Geminids

Check out this site this site for a list of more meteor showers.

 

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower

already passed early January. It sounds like a good show with many meteors…but with a very small window to view them. Maybe next year I’ll try time it right to spot this one.

The Lyrids Meteor Shower should be happening about April 21-22 this year. I cant wait for this one! I’ll already be camping out at the coast for the annual coastal cleanup for a front row seat for hopefully 15-20 meteors per hour. What a great way to celebrate Earth Day!

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower should have between 10-21 per hour around May 5^th & 6^th. Remember to look east after midnight, away from all the light pollution.

The Perseids Meteor Shower is the one I saw last year, and my very first meteor shower experience! This year it should be peaking around Aug 12^th-13^th. It’s one of the best meteor showers with the most meteors; 60-100 per hour! It should be nice and dark because the moon should set before midnight, look to the northeast.

The Orionids Meteor Shower peaks around the 21^st of October producing about 20-30 meteors per hour. There is gibbous (more than half but less than fully illuminated) moon during that time so viewing might be a little tricky, maybe try to get out for a nice fall hike to get away from all the light pollution!

The Leonids Meteor Shower should be a good one! It peaks on November 17^th & 18^th and averages about 40 meteors per hour but every 33 years it peaks at hundreds per hour! In 1966 there was The Great Leonid Meteor Storm of 1966 with a record amount of meteors!

The Geminids Meteor Shower is also a really good one! Peaking around December 13^th-15^th it is another high volume shower usually about 60 meteors per hour. Look east once it gets really dark since there’s another gibbous moon that might prevent viewing of lighter meteors.

There are also a few lunar and solar eclipses. I don’t know about you, but I have no idea the difference between a lunar and solar eclipse. I didn’t even know there was a difference! Turns out a Solar Eclpise is what I think of when I think of an eclipse. 



Solar Eclipse

 A solar eclipse is when the moon lies between earth and the sun. The result is the sun gets blocked by the moon leaving a light ring around the moon from the sun. It's good that these eclipse only last a few minutes since staring directly at the sun damages your retina. They occur during the day while the sun is still out. I remember seeing one in the evening time before the sun set.

Solar Eclipse for 2013 should happen on May 10th and November 3rd.

Lunar Eclipse

 A lunar eclipse is when the earth lies between the sun and the moon making the moon completely obscurred, giving it an orangish hue. It is visible at night wherever you normally can spot the moon. These eclipse last longer, a few hours even, and they are safe to look at.

Lunar Eclipse for 2013 should happen on April 25th, May 25th, and October 18th.

Next step will be learning the constellations! I have the big dipper down...but that's about it.