A winter ride up FS-74

[Webmaster]

FS-74 is one of my favorite excursions. While the road has been closed since November due to the massive flooding, logging continues to take place and the road gets regularly plowed to accommodate logging vehicles. On this day the road was iced over with a wonderful top coat of sparkly snow, the temperatures were in the low 20s, and I took my studded snow tire equipped bike for a fun 2.5 hour outing.

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The entire trip was made a little more remarkable by the jewel like, crystalline snow. The photo only in the most remote way conveys the spectacular eye capturing appearance. It has the feeling of first tracks on a powder day.

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And when not taken by the snow, the other scenery held equal eye-popping appeal

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There is a rock face about 3 miles back that has transformed into an ice castle

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The tree scenes are always a delight

A close look at the surroundings is sometimes the most remarkable part of the trip.

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At about 5.5 miles back I got a nice view of Mt Rainier and the changes wrought by the November floods.

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[Red Squatch]

Which road is 74 - is that the one that goes up toward the Lake Eleanor/Grand Park trailhead?

Great photos - thanks for sharing! How far in is the road damage?

[Webmaster]

Thanks for the complement! The road leading to Lake Eleanor/Grand Park is FS-73, which is a little past FS-74. FS-74 is off of SR410 just past mile post 46. When heading towards Crystal, it's on your right. There is a sign for FS-74but more folks miss it than see it. Note that the Greenwater fire station is around mile post 44. The trick is to start watching mile post signs coming out of downtown Greenwater.

There are a couple of places where FS-74 is damaged. One is about 3 miles back, but it’s minor and only took out part of one lane. The bigger take out is about 6 miles back. I guess there is another wash out about 7 miles back, but I haven’t been there since before the floods. That reminds me, I didn’t mention it above, but the road plowing abruptly ends at about 4.5 miles back and the road transitions from a sheet of ice to a thick coat of compacted snow and ice with deep ruts after that.

[Webmaster]

The snow pack melted a bit and i was able to make it a little past the large washout about 6.5 miles back. Here's the washout from below

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/fs748.jpg

...and here it is from the other side...

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Not too many folks have been here since the snow started falling. i saw one pair of snow mobile tracks, one other set of footprints and one pair of xc tracks. There is enough room to walk a bike past the washout but not much more. It appears mostly stable. I compared to a photo taken in November and it has only changed slightly.

Just above the washout the snow depth increases dramatically. I walked about a mile past and the snow was about 1.5' deep. (Note to self: next trip bring snow shoes!)

http://explore-greenwater.com/pix/fs749.jpg

The flood related damage is highly apparent. where there was a forest now is a debris field.

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Near the end of the outing, Rainier was putting on a nice display...

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