On October 13, Cliff Maas reported that snow had fallen over the eastern flanks of the Cascade crest. With only a few more sunny days in the extended forecast, he suggested that "if you want to enjoy outdoor activity, do it in the next few days." That was all the motivation we needed to call out of work and head for Spider Gap on the newly re-opened Chiwawa River Road, which had been closed for the summer due to the Pomas fire.
We left the trailhead at 5am, not sure how much snow we would find, and how much it would slow us down. We found the snow starting just above 5,000 feet on the climb up to Spider Gap. From there, we ran over mostly continuous snow all the way through Buck Creek Pass. Most of it was only a few inches deep, but some northern aspects were holding onto knee-deep drifts. It will be easy to drop time on another attempt with less snow up high!
Cruising down Buck Creek was lovely, but some spots were overgrown and we had to hop over quite a few blowdowns on what would have otherwise been a really runnable descent. Crossing the Chiwawa River was simple and we kept our feet dry. There were streams along the entire route to get water. It was below freezing when we started, but the sun hit us around 10am and it turned into a really mild and sunny afternoon. We finished at 3:30pm.
Cliff was right, it was a fantastic day to get out on in the mountains. This is a top-tier loop and we had a great day!