Derek and I hiked a beautiful, but tough trail complete with green, wet rainforests, waterfalls, sunshine and alpine lakes. I was pleased that my work schedule allowed me a chunk of days off for Fourth of July Weekend (I didn’t care I had to work Fourth of July night!), so I researched potential overnight trips. Most of the “view” hikes are still snow-covered, which has been a problem this spring/summer due to the heavy snowfall this winter and the cool temperatures all spring. In fact, after reading the trail conditions report for Mount Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest, there was only one possibility for an overnighter unless we wanted to risk it with the snow.
Derek's got a homemade rain-fly : )
We hiked the Taylor River Trail to Trail #1002 that goes up to Snoqualmie Lake then on to Deer Lake. It was 16.5 miles round trip to Snoqualmie Lake, with about 2100 feet elevation gain (1500 of it was in the last 2 miles!) The first trail – 5 miles to Big Creek Falls – is actually an old road bed, so the hiking is flat and easy, except for a few tricky creek crossings.
Crossing Marten Creek on a nice bridge
At around 4.5 miles, we cut off the trail to make the short trip over to Otter Falls, a beautiful cascading waterfall into a pool that may be inviting for swimming on a warmer day. Colby ate some lunch here and had fun splashing in the water.
Otter Falls
Colby eats lunch out of a plastic bag
After 6.2 miles, the trail splits to head left up to Snoqualmie Lake. The trail has had recent work and is in pretty darn good shape considering how much water there was running down the slope. Waterproof boots are highly recommended! Sometimes we were just walking up a stream that cascaded down the rocky trail.
Trail split
After this point, you enter the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. The trees are big here!
Colby checks out the sign
It was 2 miles (an hour and a half) of hiking until we got to the lake. Colby saw snow for the first time and he destroyed the snowball I threw at him.
Colby demolishes his first snowball
Snow at Snoqualmie Lake
We chose a campsite that had the best view, although it was very muddy. Only 3 campsites were snow-free, however I’m not sure how many there are under the snow either. We let Colby run around off leash when we got to setting up camp, and he found himself a snack: human poop that was not buried in the considerate, proper way. Gross!
Our campsite, prime location for a great view
Hemlock was plentiful for starting fires, since it burns when wet, however we still lacked a dry bunch of stuff to start the fire with. After hunting and spending about an hour, we eventually got a fire that produced some warmth!
Derek hard at work making a fire
Cold, tired pup
Warming up the cold puppy in my lap by the fire
So tired!!
Colby slept in the tent with us, but he didn’t have an intuitive sense of where the warmest spot was (between me and Derek)… so we had a very restless night trying to keep him from going back to our feet and then starting to shiver.
Colby sandwich in the tent!
One last look at the lake
When I went looking for a bear hang, I found a latrine up on the hill. I really wish that the person who left a surface turd had used the latrine instead!
Oh yeah, there was a latrine too, up on the hill
Some of the creek crossings were tricky
We saw Mt. Rainier on the way home on I-90 bridge!
To Sum it Up:
It was the longest hike we’ve done in a long time, and the heavy packs (30-40lb) slowed us down and resulted in most of my soreness. We were pretty beat afterwards, and ended up heading to Old Country Buffet for a huge dinner. It was great weather and it was awesome to get out of town and do an overnight hike.
We completed: 16.4 miles with 2100 feet of elevation gain (and descent on way back down) in 9 hours.
Next Time: Pack lighter, and leave time to play in Taylor River on the way out or back.
I Wish I had Brought:
More stove fuel – we ran out before breakfast, sad : (
Trekking Poles
Dry material for starting fires
***See Derek’s photos and video here! Derek Rippe Photography
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