Triple H Hikers: Snowshoe adventure #1 Gold Creek

All summer long, Terah was bugging me and bugging me to try snow shoeing in the winter. Hiking will just about be impossible...what are we going to do to stay in hiking shape all winter long.....nag, nag, nag. I gave in. Terah wouldn't QUIT! I had trying snow shoeing in my backyard back in NH when I was a kid. You know, the old school ones----wooden, huge---probably too huge for me. After a loop around the field (I lived in the middle of no where NH with 40 acre backyard) where we had some snowmobile tracks to blaze a trail for me, I fell, tripped and had a miserable time of it. I exclaimed 'Why would anyone what to do THAT!' after 10 minutes. So, giving into Terah was not an easy decision and she really had to work for it. I'm glad I listened to her. Terah 'cracked out' on the WTA website and found a nice, easy trail for us at Gold Creek. It's off of I-90 here in Washington--exit 54 (Hyak) at the end of the exit, take a left and it's right there. Just keep following the road and take your next right. You'll NEED a sno park pass ($40 per year, $20 per day....so obviously just better to get it for the year) to avoid hefty fines. You'll see the cars lined up on the very snowy road and there are a couple of honey buckets flanking the entrance. Now loads of people go off trail. We do not. Last week, 4 women went off trail and ended up staying the night out there before being rescued. It may sound boring to play it safe, but we make it home, safe and sound. Our men like it that way!

Using a GPS tracker program, we found we made it about 7 miles round trip....that's all the trail that was blazed for us . Being our first trip out ever, we had enough as well. It's hot work. We dressed in layers and that was a huge help. We always stop for lunch (gourmet as much as we can!) and we didn't stop for long. Warmed up with a little help from a silver friend filled with adult beverage with a homemade skinny vanilla latte chaser. It was pretty simple, neither of us fell, although we did scratch our gear up a bit here and there. We were pretty proud of ourselves!