March 19, 2006, Nordic Pass trail - Hyak Lk

I only had time for an afternoon tour, so went to Hyak solo and starting at 12:30 skinned up alongside Hyak Creek more or less on the Nordic Pass trail though the forest up to Hyak Lake. A snow bridge at the start is still in. There was 2 to 6 inches of recent dense wet snow, very sparkly in the sun with big crystals from a clear night, getting sticky enough to allow ascent without skins on waxed skis on low slopes. Spring is here. T-shirt skiing with good snow 8).  Lots of tree drippage for sort of a swamp cooler effect. After some easy turns around Hyak Lk and Grand Junction, I headed toward back down, but accidentally turned onto the "I-90" downhill Central-to-East crossover and a downhill run, doing some more exciting turns with the snowboarders down to the Nordic Center, where they were very relaxed about letting me skin back up the edge and do it again.  Quit at 3:30 and walked back to Gold Cr sno-park.