Sunday Lake 2.8.05

I had disjointed day planned because of an oncall shift that I was scheduled tonight. I was 95% sure I wouldn't be needed but you just never know. I haven't been up the North Fork Snoqualmie for some time so I thought since it was close I would give it a go. The road is in much finer shape than it's big brother the Middle Fork Rd. I found a decent place to park on the gated road that is the Sunday Lake trail. There was a couple inches of snow on the ground and everything was quite frozen as I made my way. I had remembered that there is a low lying area that is very swampy and very tedious to cross. I started on the left side of the road and then crossed to the left side about half way through. There are some logs to cross the fairly deep water. Confounding this crossing was the iced over logs, this is not the kind of water that you would want to fall into. I managed to make it to the other side to dry terra firma, thankfully I might add. I was looking for a logging road that branches off and climbs to the NE. When I arrived at the junction I disregarded it due to it's overgrown nature. I followed the road until the crossing of Sunday Creek. Although the flow was somewhat high it looked crossable. I have already been to Sunday Lake and if memory serves me well it was not worth a return visit. I backtracked until the junction I had previously disregarded, I could see the road above me so I mearly climbed straight uphill to join the road. The road itself is fairly brushy but I managed to circumnavigate most of the bad areas without too much problem. I do wish I had wore some type of eyewear to protect my eyes from the countless branches. I continued on the road with only minimal problems. As I climbed the snow became 8 to 10 inches deep but snowshoes were not needed. I reached the end of the road at around 3600ft. I did not see an obvious route to climb further, so I just ascended the path of least resistance. As I reached 3800ft the going became quite slow. The trees were now plastered with snow making for chilly going. I had gone well past my turn around time already, so I would never make it to work if I was needed. I decided to turn around, going through the swampy area in the dark was not appealing in the least. The decent went quickly, although I wished I had a face mask on to protect from the stinging branches. I thankfully crossed the boggy area and was back at the truck. Lucky for me I wasn't needed at work and was only late enough to give the wife a slight scare. The weather was ideal not a cloud in the sky all day! Another spring day in the middle of Winter!