Cross-country Ski - Lost Lake

Trip Report

I first did this trip in 2023, and decided it is worth returning to annually.   The season for this trip is a bit shorter than for other trails around Crystal Springs.  The last three miles is on snowmobile trail, and the motorized grooming calendar ends in the first week of March.  This year we skied on the last day of scheduled grooming.

Our scheduled date came after a few days of warm weather and increasing temperatures.   We met up in North Bend in the Safeway parking lot.  We made our final carpooling arrangements, and headed over the pass to Crystal Springs.  We drove past rows of snowmobile parking to the far end of the lot. There we met Juan Pablo and Taylor, who had traveled separately.  We did our introductions, and got moving.   The parking lot sounded like the sound mixing studio for a Mad Max movie, and I was happy to get some distance.

The dog sled trail runs 1.1 miles through forest.  The snow base was a bit thin in the woods. Fortunately, there was enough  base to allow continued grooming.   The Palouse to Cascades Trail, formerly a railroad, and a section of Lost Lake Road run parallel.  The trail runs from the parking lot to Lost Lake Road, used by snowmobiles, where sled teams turn left, and skiers go up a short, steep connector to the Palouse to Cascades Trail and turn right.

  

We all got up the hill and onto the flat former railroad right of way, and skied for about a mile with set track, until we got to the intersection with FS 5480, Lost Lake Road.  We stopped for hydration, clothing adjustment and a group photo.   I was on one side of the road with my phone camera, and the rest of the group was on the other side.  I waited for some snowmobilers to pass by.  The last of them waited, as if for me to cross the road.  I waved him by.  He said, I know what you're doing.  Do you want to be in the picture?   I took him up on his offer, and here is the photo he took:

The trip was organized with the expectation that we would split into a faster and a slower group, probably at the point where the grade increases near Roaring Brook, maybe sooner.   I had surgery ten weeks earlier and had been rehabbing diligently, in a medically monitored cardiac rehab program,  and  by walking in hilly areas with jugs of water in my pack for conditioning weight.  In fact, the hope of completing this ski trip was one of my big incentives in my exercise program.  Nonetheless, I did not expect to keep up a typical group pace on the long uphill, gaining about 500 feet in a mile and a quarter.

Felicia Wibowo, Key Leader and recent recipient of the 2024 Seattle Branch Service Award, had volunteered to co-lead the trip.  If I needed to turn around, she could take over and finish the trip.  I would know the group was in good hands.  If I did not turn around, we had a plan for reconciling the pace difference.  We split near Roaring Brook.  The slow group was me and assistant leader Lisa Elliott.  All leaders had walkie-talkies for communications.  There is a nice open spot near the top of the long grade with a view of the Meadow Creek valley and beyond, a good photo opportunity.   Felicia and most of the group would  reach that first, take a break, then move on when I got close.  In fact, they waited long enough for a few group photos.

Felicia, with Taylor Courier as assistant leader in her group, then took off up Road 5480, while Lisa and I took a break.  A few hundred yards up the trail was an intersection.  Road 5480 turned right, and shortly there was a turn-off to the boat launch area on Lost Lake, our planned lunch stop. If instead, one went straight at the intersection, on Road 5483, in about a quarter mile was an overlook with a great view of the lake and the ridge line beyond.   Felicia would take her group up to the overlook to take in the view and take photos, and then back down to the intersection.  That would give me time to catch up and meet them at the intersection without anyone having to wait for me.

Lisa and I got to the intersection in time to see the first skier come down the hill.  This quarter mile of Road 5483 was the steepest grade on our route.  Some of the skiers came down pretty fast.  Some used snowplows very effectively to slow down.  One used a berm of snow, pushed up at the edge of the intersection by snow groomers turning around, as a stop and remained standing, but burying a ski pole.  Taylor, a recent basic cross country ski student, came down carrying his skis, which was a pretty good idea.

We sat down just before noon in a sunny place out of the wind, on the shore of Lost Lake.  It was a time for re-applying sunscreen as well as replenishing calories, electrolytes and fluids.   Dominique had been skiing in shorts, and was working on his tan.

We skied down the long grade without catastrophe.  My surgery was not slowing me down on the downhills.  However, the snow surface, packed and broken up by snowmobiles, was a bit chunky.  I was trying a new pair of touring skis for the first time, which did not have metal edges.  Full metal edges are my security blanket on hills, and I missed them.  It was a bit more work to keep the plastic skis from getting pushed out of position by crud that the metal edges would have easily cut through.   

When we got back to the parking lot, I checked my Caltopo app.  It showed a distance of 10.2 miles for me and Lisa, with elevation gain of 880'.  Felicia's group, covering the additional distance to the high overlook, had logged 10.6 miles.  The elevation difference is about 140'.  I made my personal goal of finishing the trip without unreasonable delay.  My training and cardiac rehab had paid off. My thanks to Felicia for being co-leader, and to Lisa and Taylor for assisting, and to all the participants for being a supportive and good humored bunch.

Map