Poor Amy. For her birthday we were in Disneyland. Not bad, but probably not what she had in mind for her 29th birthday. For my birthday she had to go snowshoeing at night. Next thing you know she'll have to go to some lame kids' place with bad pizza and loud games for the kids' birthdays. (Do I sense a bit of foreshadowing?)
We ditched the kids (well, put them to bed and snuck out) with Michelle and headed up to the Pass. The weather wasn't perfect, but the clouds were blowing through pretty quickly and the moon was supposed to be out in force. My plan was to head to Lake Keechelus where the moonlight would dance across the frozen expanse of the lake and we could drink hot chocolate and ponder the future.
Yeah, well, the best laid plans get squashed by Sno Parks that close after dark and State Patrol who sit there just waiting to bust someone crazy enough to tempt them. Thpth. So we went looking for somewhere else. (Turns out we didn't have to. I saw the same State Patrol car about a week later covered in a foot of snow. Hmph.)
With time running short we swung over to Gold Creek and wandered up the short road. There was no chance it was going to be closed (it doesn't close) and it would be short enough to get there and back quickly. Never mind I'd already been to Gold Creek once this season Amy hadn't been there for over a year and never at night.
The road in was short and quick. The sheer volume of snow amazed me. Gold Creek is only at about 2,500 feet, but weeks and weeks of unrelenting snow had turned the picnic benches and BBQs into mere lumps in the snow. There was a five or six foot drop to the level surface of the frozen pond.
We started to carve a seat on the bank, but realized if we dropped to the ice we could make a much better and more sheltered spot to cozy into. In fact, there were a couple of spots so we only needed to do some minor work and we had a good place to chill.
Unfortunately, even out of the wind it was still very chilly. The moon never really came out over the hills so it was dark and the clouds blocked views of even the stars except in brief moments.
When Amy's toes started going numb (a Gold Creek tradition) it was time to head home. We got back so early Michelle hadn't finished watching one of those horrible embarrassments of a television show. (I think it was something to do with Scott Baio being either old or pregnant. So sad.)
It was a good birthday night and Amy even wound up with feeling in almost all her toes by the end of the night.
Total distance: 1.5 miles and 100 feet of gain.
