Annette Lake

Annette Lake was plan C. Thought about Mt. Washington on the drive up I-90, but decided to pass on that. Then, we thought about getting into Mason Lake, but FS Road 9031 was closed. From the Mt Baker/Snoqualmie Forest Service website, road conditions section – (Helicopter timber thinning will close Mason Lake Road (Forest Service Road 9031) at milepost 2.0 until May 4.), so, off to the Annette Lake Trailhead. The parking lot is still inaccessible due to too much snow. So, we parked on the road, geared up, and headed out at the nice and early time of 08:45.

The trail was patchy snow until a bit past the Iron Horse Trail. The snow conditions were not too bad on the lower sections of the trail, a bit slushy but manageable. It was not until we reached around 2.5 miles in that we donned snowshoes. Once we encountered the first major gully, we went up the slope a few hundred feet to about 3700’ or so and then continued along the hillside towards the lake. The rest of the gullies were not too bad in snowshoes, although in the sunny portions, the snow was very soft and mushy.
  
The Lake – is still frozen over except the outlet portion, although there is a snow bridge across the outlet that will probably be gone soon as the warm weather continues. There is still plenty of snow at the lake though, in the shady areas it’s probably 7-10 feet deep. Some of the tree wells we passed on the way in looked to be about 7-9 feet deep. We crossed the snow bridge and found a nice spot on the west side of the lake for lunch in the shade. On the other side of the lake from where we had lunch (northeast side) are the remains of an avalanche and on the southern slopes of Abiel peak are the tracks of some back country skiers. That looked like a lot of fun!

The trip back was uneventful, although the snow conditions had deteriorated on those sunny slopes, we managed despite that. We took the snowshoes off about the same place we put them on but didn’t use traction devices on the lower portion of the trail on the way down, although a few folks we encountered were using them. Poles were sufficient if you took your time. Back to where we parked with plenty of daylight left, having thoroughly enjoyed the trip.