Cle Elum Sojourn

It was Ruth's first weekend in Ellensburg. She hadn't made any friends yet, and she and I came up with the idea of xc skiing up at Snoqualmie over the weekend. I figured that since I was going to be in Auburn on early Saturday afternoon, we ought to meet up at the pass later that day. Then we could spend Saturday night in Cle Elum and ski the next morning.

The plan sort of worked. The rain and time conspired against us on Saturday. Ruth had to return her rental stuff at 4, which was about the time I arrived. So I had a half-hearted, late day ski by myself in the much less than perfect snow on Iron Horse. Not bad, not great way to spend an hour. Then we drove to Cle Elum and stayed at the Stewart Inn, which was fine. Had a surprisingly good dinner at the Starlight.

We headed to Cabin Creek in the morning. I was not all that enthused about the prospect of skiing up there, because I figured the snow would be similar to what I had to deal with on the Iron Horse trail the day before. But I was pleasantly surprised on several counts. First, it is a quick drive from Cle Elum. Second, the trails were groomed perfectly, and the snow was good. Third, the trails were nice. They reminded me of the "easy" trails at Sun Mountain, which is a pretty high standard. And fourth, Ruth is a good skate skier for only having out been a couple times. She and I skied together some, and sometimes she'd take the shortcut and we'd meet up a little later. I had a very nice morning and would love to go back there. Spending a weekend based out of Cle Elum and skiing up at Cabin Creek isn't bad at all. Ruth and I wrapped up our weekend with lunch up at the Hyak xc ski lodge - totally forgettable. Better to brown bag it in the car! Unfortunately no GPS info for the Cabin Creek skiing - the unit was not charged.