Nason Creek Trail Report

by Dave Neir on January 28, 2013

By: Richard Kopczynski
Nason Ridge Trail 1583
In the wake of the December storm, my friend Julie and I were curious about the condition of the snowshoe route (the summer hiking trail) from the golf course up along the lake to the top of the groomed trail loop. This trip would usually take us an hour and a half, under fair snow conditions. With snowshoes on and x-c skis strapped to our back, up we went. (We started the trip near the water tower on the golf course.) The first hundred yards gave us a taste of what was to come: several massive trees lay crashed across the old road. Soft, deep snow, steep hillside, a wall of branches and brush, and skis sticking skyward, made forward progress tricky, slow and frustrating. This scene repeated itself endlessly. Around 1/3 the way up, at an especially daunting mass of tangled timber and limbs across a very steep slope, the recent snowshoe tracks in front of us turned back. That turned out to be the smart choice. We pushed on. Our discouragement increased. At three hours, we finally slogged up into the saddle, soaked with sweat. After a short lunch, we swapped snowshoes for skis, and started the descent. Our hopes for a pleasant trip down were dashed: snowmobilers had been all the way to the top of the loop and destroyed every part of the groomed track. No snowplowing for us today: what should have been a sweet ride down turned into a nasty struggle to stay on our skis. All in all: don’t bother with the trail this year. It will take a massive cleanup effort to get the trail back into usable shape.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

jbk51691 January 28, 2013 at 7:06 pm: Aw that’s too bad to hear. I know we snowshoed the Nason Ridge trail at the same starting point (water tower) prior to the storm and it already had a few downed trees and we turned around at Big Red. We were out xc skiing last weekend on the groomed side of Nason Ridge and also encountered some snowmobile tracks at the first/second junctions after the power lines. It looked like they saw it was a groomed trail further down and turned back and instead ventured up the high loop trail instead. That’s a bummer when they get out and intentionally ruin the trails when they can clearly see they are groomed for skiers. They must have come thru the Butcher Creek gate area. Sorry to hear your experience was a disaster.
avajane January 30, 2013 at 8:56 am: I skied in from the Butcher Creek side on the 27th or 28th late in the day. There was a gate and a sign showing no snowmobiling – Private property owned by a timber company. The snow mobile tracks went around the gate but then never got on the groomed trail although I didn’t have enough daylight to go up very far. Skiers all know how difficult and dangerous it is to try to ski on frozen snow mobile tracks with lightweight cross country gear. Do snowmobilers know that? I bet they don’t give it much thought. Maybe there should be a sign explaining how it works.? Could an article be posted at sites they read? There are miles and miles of groomed snow machine roads. I’d like to think that the average snow mobile group would respect this one little area if they understood.