Surprise Lake
Sep 04, 2009
by
Nathan
—
last modified
Sep 09, 2009 01:13 PM
- Type of Outing
- Overnight
- Read More in our Hiking Guide
- Hike: Surprise Lake
- Region: South Cascades -- Goat Rocks
- Agency: Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Naches Ranger District
- Trails: Surprise Lake (#1120)
- Avg Rating: 3.33
- Why You Should Go Now
- Wildflowers blooming
- Ripe berries
- Be Aware Of
- Mudholes
- Water on trail
- Bugs
Nathan Durnan at Conrad Meadows
For a last-minute, spur-of-the-moment trip, this one turned out pretty well. We got a late start on the day (on the trail around 3pm), but were able to make it to the lake before dark. The hike in was dry and warm, but pretty decent weather overall. We had great visibility for taking pictures all afternoon. Although the nice weather also mean more mosquitoes to "bug" us.
The lower meadows are free-range cattle areas, so we ran into plenty of cows along the way. On the plus side, lots of cattle means fewer problems with predators for hikers (I think). There were quite a few groups of horses coming in and out of Conrad Meadows as well. I'm happy to report that the vast majority of the horses we ran into were quite well socialized with hikers and dogs, so we didn't have any problems with skiddish horses.
We had a little bit of a hard time staying on the right trail through the meadows. After the gate across Rd.1000, we didn't notice the sign down the hill to the left for TR.1120. Instead we continued on the road for a ways until we hit another road that took off to the left. Following this, we immediately crossed two streams and were out in the meadow area. All-in-all, this was great hiking, but the "trail" we were on kept splitting off into side-trails and spurs. We wasted a bit of time making sure we were headed the right direction. Eventually, we made it across the meadow to the trailhead for TR1120 off of the main road again. If we would've stayed on Rd.1000 all the way to the trailhead, we would've saved ourselves some navigational headaches, but would've missed out on some of the meadow views.
After getting back onto the real TR1120, the rest of the hike was very easy to navigate. There were a few muddy areas along the trail, but nothing that decent boots & gaiters couldn't muck through. One of the bridges (Conrad Creek crossing, I believe) is also in kind of sad shape, but still quite functional. It is tipped towards the upstream side, and the access on one end requires quite the step up onto it. The other end has a gap between the bridge and the trail that takes a bit of a jump to cross. Nothing too bad, but smaller kids and dogs may have a hard time of it.
The real effort on the trail comes after the fork where the Surprise Lake Loop starts. We had been warned about a large, aggressive beehive on the Northern part of the loop, and it was getting late anyhow, so we took the more direct Southern trail up to Surprise Lake. The trail climbs fairly briskly up to the lake, with plenty of switchbacks. Since we were racing dusk up to the lake, just about the time one switchback would be in the shadows, we would make it up to the next one and be in the sun again. There are plenty of great views (the surrounding peaks, waterfalls, some exposed rock outcroppings...) on the way up the hill to stop and take in while catching your breath!
The lake is nestled in a nice little bowl and the water was very clear. We found our way around to an unused campsite and set up camp for the night. There was already an established fire pit (not much dry wood though) and several flat spots for tents. We set up camp on the high ground, got some dinner, and hit the hay for the night.
It drizzled pretty much all night and most of the next morning, so we got to break camp in the rain. The trail changes its nature once it's wet. The dry dusty path from the night before was now a muddy, slippery trudge back down. Most of the trail was pretty good even when wet, but beware of spontaneously losing your footing on particularly soggy sections! The rain was fairly light most of the time, and even gave way to some sunshine partway through the morning. The only real drawback to it was that it make getting more pictures a little harder.
We had a great time, and will hopefully get out here again and finish the loop trail sometime when the bees aren't hogging it. And maybe venture up to the glacier as well!
The lower meadows are free-range cattle areas, so we ran into plenty of cows along the way. On the plus side, lots of cattle means fewer problems with predators for hikers (I think). There were quite a few groups of horses coming in and out of Conrad Meadows as well. I'm happy to report that the vast majority of the horses we ran into were quite well socialized with hikers and dogs, so we didn't have any problems with skiddish horses.
We had a little bit of a hard time staying on the right trail through the meadows. After the gate across Rd.1000, we didn't notice the sign down the hill to the left for TR.1120. Instead we continued on the road for a ways until we hit another road that took off to the left. Following this, we immediately crossed two streams and were out in the meadow area. All-in-all, this was great hiking, but the "trail" we were on kept splitting off into side-trails and spurs. We wasted a bit of time making sure we were headed the right direction. Eventually, we made it across the meadow to the trailhead for TR1120 off of the main road again. If we would've stayed on Rd.1000 all the way to the trailhead, we would've saved ourselves some navigational headaches, but would've missed out on some of the meadow views.
After getting back onto the real TR1120, the rest of the hike was very easy to navigate. There were a few muddy areas along the trail, but nothing that decent boots & gaiters couldn't muck through. One of the bridges (Conrad Creek crossing, I believe) is also in kind of sad shape, but still quite functional. It is tipped towards the upstream side, and the access on one end requires quite the step up onto it. The other end has a gap between the bridge and the trail that takes a bit of a jump to cross. Nothing too bad, but smaller kids and dogs may have a hard time of it.
The real effort on the trail comes after the fork where the Surprise Lake Loop starts. We had been warned about a large, aggressive beehive on the Northern part of the loop, and it was getting late anyhow, so we took the more direct Southern trail up to Surprise Lake. The trail climbs fairly briskly up to the lake, with plenty of switchbacks. Since we were racing dusk up to the lake, just about the time one switchback would be in the shadows, we would make it up to the next one and be in the sun again. There are plenty of great views (the surrounding peaks, waterfalls, some exposed rock outcroppings...) on the way up the hill to stop and take in while catching your breath!
The lake is nestled in a nice little bowl and the water was very clear. We found our way around to an unused campsite and set up camp for the night. There was already an established fire pit (not much dry wood though) and several flat spots for tents. We set up camp on the high ground, got some dinner, and hit the hay for the night.
It drizzled pretty much all night and most of the next morning, so we got to break camp in the rain. The trail changes its nature once it's wet. The dry dusty path from the night before was now a muddy, slippery trudge back down. Most of the trail was pretty good even when wet, but beware of spontaneously losing your footing on particularly soggy sections! The rain was fairly light most of the time, and even gave way to some sunshine partway through the morning. The only real drawback to it was that it make getting more pictures a little harder.
We had a great time, and will hopefully get out here again and finish the loop trail sometime when the bees aren't hogging it. And maybe venture up to the glacier as well!
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Lots of cows along the way.
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Bridge over Conrad Creek(?) - smaller hikers and dogs may need some assistance.
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Fading light over the Goat Rocks
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