Jan 30, 2012, Iron Horse RR, Crystal S - Lk Easton

The weather looked marginal, but not bad, so we went.  I met Margaret at N Bend then we headed east.
We left a vehicle at Lk. Easton St. Pk. then drove Flipper back to Crystal Springs (Stampede Pass).
The rd to the Iron Horse Tr. was freshly groomed wet snow.  I skated to the RR and back, deciding that the snow was heavy and skinny skis w/ scales were the better choice.  We got spit on a little bit, but not enough to bother covering the tights and soft-shell w/ Gore-Tex(tm).
The RR grade was nicely packed by snowmachines.  We went around the tunnel, but we could have walked through it.  The route was a no-brainier to follow.  I was unsure about crossing the Yakima R., but the nice bridge was big and odvious.  We did see some snow that had slid off steep rocks in a RR cut.  After crossing the Yakima R. we were back on nice groomed track the last mile to the car.  The ten miles went by really fast.  Car to car we took about 4 hours, so we were moving along at an easy clip of two and a half miles an hour.