Cabin Creek Trails--Getting Ready for Snow

It's coming.  There's snow in the higher elevations and ski season is on its way, even if it is predicted to be an El Nino year.  Lots of work has been done on the Cabin Creek trails this summer and fall to get them ready for grooming, and Suzanne provides us with this overview of where things stand.

The State Parks Sno-Park program kicks into gear December 1st. From then until March 31st, the Sno-Park contracted groomer (as yet unassigned) will groom the trails at Cabin Creek for classic and skate skiing, weather permitting. 

Long before that December 1 date, members of the Cle Elum Forest Service, the Kongsberger Ski Club, and other Nordic recreation groups are busy making the trails as groomer-friendly as possible. Throughout the fall, work parties have cut back brush, cleaned culverts, moved large and small rocks, taken down dead trees, and cleared timber that fell during last year's storms. Many, many hands and many hours later, the trail surface is unencumbered with debris and navigable by the big groomer. 

One new feature for the 2023-2024 winter is the improved placement of the Amabilis Hut. You will encounter it about halfway between the 'Y' and the Saddle, on an old spur. There is room around it to comfortably approach and park skis.  The current permit for the hut is with the USFS. The hope is that when the land transfer from The Nature Conservancy to the USFS of the forest section the Saddle is on occurs (due to happen this winter), we can apply for a permit to put it back to its original site at the Saddle. 

Another project involves creating a short diversion on the Viking trail around the first steep downhill. The Kongsbergers are working with the Bureau of Reclamation and the Cle Elum USFS to get a permit to groom a former spur that cuts under the big hill. Lindsey Pruett, the Cle Elum Recreation Manager, is helping KSC to see that through. 

All we need now is snow, El Nino permitting.

Suzanne Corkran