Snowshoeing near Roslyn

On Saturday, Ryan and I set out snowshoeing. It took a couple of days during the week to coordinate who wanted to go; Melinda ended up having to work, so we ended up going by ourselves.

We both agreed that we didn't want to snowshoe near Snoqualmie. It is lovely, but everyone goes there because it's easily accessible. Ryan had a book of snowshoeing trails, so we picked one past Snoqualmie, near Cle Elum. I think we probably ended up driving about 90 minutes. We went to the town of Roslyn, which is where the tv show "Northern Exposure" was filmed, and we ended up finding a trail of sorts about 10 miles away. The snow was old, and had hardened enough that we didn't ever strap on our snowshoes. Ryan was nice and carried mine in his backpack, as well as his own snowshoes. We wandered around the hillsides and had views like this, of a lake with mountains behind it:



We also saw some really interesting animal tracks in the snow. Lots of rabbit or hare tracks, some more cat-looking paws, and these strange things:




That is Ryan's hand for scale. To me, they look like raptor feet with a dewclaw in the back (there is a dot behind where the three toes meet), but I suppose they could be some sort of ground-trekking animal? I am glad the "snow" setting on my camera was able to capture the contrast.


Here is a picture of me, overheating on our hike. I always overdress and then end up shedding all my exterior appendage covers; in this case, scarf, hat, and ski gloves.


We probably hiked around for an hour and a half to two hours, then I admitted I was hungry for lunch, so we drove back into Roslyn. Ryan really wanted to eat at the Roslyn Cafe, but it was closed for the winter.


So we made a loop around the miniature downtown, and settled on lunch at a Roslyn diner, across the street from the cafe, and next door to the Roslyn Brewing Company, where they make two beers, Light and Dark. :)

I took the picture below standing across the street from the Roslyn Cafe, and looking back towards the downtown.

Ryan and I drove home, humming the theme song to "Northern Exposure" every so often on the way! We had fun, and it was great to be outside, but we both really want some new snow to fall, so we can go skiing (he boards) and snowshoeing in fresh stuff!