Gold Lake, Big Snow Mountain — Friday, Jul. 29, 2016

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

May 2015, I did a 'winter' trip to Gold Lake, attempting to reach Big Snow ( http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2015-05-03.0903761773 and http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8021638 ). That winter was nuts, and solid snow coverage did not start until 4700ft. Some people have reported that Big Snow via Gold Lake is a nice winter trip, but that applies if low elevation snow coverage is good. In my previous trip report I wrote "You won't find me again on the Lake Dorothy / Gold Lake route to Big Snow". Well, somehow I found myself on this route yesterday. The tarnage above Gold Lake looks amazing on the map, and I was determined to enjoy this, even if it would involve a lengthy struggle through slide alder. From previous experience I knew that this route is slightly crazy to do in summer, but it is possible, so there we go. We started at 5:15am. It was going to be a warm day, so I wanted to get the hard part to Gold Lake done before it got too warm. I knew that time was not going to be much an issue thanks to the early start and long day, so I took it easy and tried to save my energy as much as possible. We reached Lake Dorothy in 45 minutes, and it took another 45 minutes to reach the other side of the lake. The size of Lake Dorothy keeps amazing me. The trail along the lake has a couple of messy eroded spots that are easily passable, but a bit clumsy. These spots could become a bigger problem if the trail is not improved before major winter storms. The bootpath at the east-side of the inlet is in good condition until 3500ft, so that part was pretty quick (see my previous report for more details on this section). Once the bootpath gets less clear, pink flags start. I don't remember seeing so many flags on my previous trip, so they may be new. I realized that I was following a different bootpath than my previous trip when my GPS indicated that we were beyond the nice waterfall at 3500ft. The flagged bootpath made for easy route-finding though, so I continued, sadly skipping the waterfall this time. The flagged bootpath crosses a creek (from lake 4225) and then proceeds to the fork of Fools Gold Lake. The river is best crossed right above the fork. The flags continue (this is nice, because the terrain above the fork is a bit tricky with some cliffs). In a swampy area at 3850ft I took some photos and the mosquito attack started here full force. Bugs were pretty bad until a bit beyond Gold Lake. While running from the mosquitoes I missed that the flagged route continued at the other side of the swamp. Later, I searched for flags for a while, but then gave up and decided to follow my previous route (orange on the detail map) and just deal with the slide alder. I learned a lot about slide alder in this section. It has beautiful flowers. The swamp area just below 4200ft is very beautiful. The bottom of the creek from Gold Lake is also gorgeous with many branches and flowers. On the climb to Gold Lake I noticed pink flags again, so I realized that I missed the flagged route somewhere. I decided to try the reverse flagged route on the way out. We reached Gold Lake at 10am (so ~5 hours to here) and took a nice break at the lake. The lake is difficult to photograph from closeby. It's pretty big, and the sun was in the way. After Gold Lake we got our reward: tarnage madness! We followed the creek up to tarn 5759. This area is just stunningly beautiful with various small waterfalls, tarn after tarn, snowfields, and beautiful rock formations. I took way too many photos, so it was slow going. The views also gradually open up in this section. We reached tarn 5759 and filled up on water. From tarn 5759 to the narrow section to the summit the rock is quite beautiful. The airy section still holds some snow, but is not dangerous (no required snow crossings to this point). I was a bit concerned about my dog though: the south-side of the snow is easy to traverse, but the north-side steeply goes down to Big Snow Lake. My dog is always smart about where she walks, but I'm always concerned she suddenly does something stupid. Views from the summit were great. The Chiefs, Chimney Rocks, Lemah and Chikamin look magnificent from this angle. The peaks line up perfectly to form an impressive range of steep summits. We saw a goat with her kid in the snow below the summit slowly making their way up. When I stood up and made a photo the mom was alarmed and ran away. It was good to see goat that are not used to people! On the way out we stopped briefly at tarn 5759 for a swim. This was the first time I took the time to cool down in a high alpine lake during a day hike, and it felt great! Very refreshing on such a warm day. The decent to 4200ft was beautiful and uneventful. From this point, I followed the flags, which went up to a swamp area on the west side of the valley (visible on the topo map as a slightly flat shoulder), and then up the ridge. The route was great until the top of the ridge. First, the ridge has a pretty significant number of ups and downs. Finally, the way down was pretty horrible, see the detailed description of the route options at the end for some more comments on this. I regretted taking this route: it was more dangerous and energy consuming than dealing with the slide alder. Following the bootpath out was easy from the Fools Gold Lake fork. At Lake Dorothy it looked like every camp spot was taken. I had to rush a bit to not have to walk in the dark. On the hike out I met only one group, some guys, one carrying some serious rifle. I'm not a gun expert, but I've never seen such a serious gun in the mountains. I hope this was not for target shooting. We reached the trailhead at 8:45pm. At the trailhead I ran into a couple of backpackers that were still planning to reach Lake Dorothy tonight. Given how busy it was, it must have been hard to find a camp spot in the dark. While I was packing up there was also a white truck that suspiciously left immediately. On the drive out, I noticed this car parked a mile or two down the trail. I fear they were waiting for me to leave and were probably planning to go back, but sadly I did not get a chance to see the number plate. I didn't want to risk driving back and capturing it. Be careful with stuff in your car at this trailhead! Length: 17 miles Elevation gain: 5600ft (many ups and downs, so feels like more) Duration: 5:15am - 8:45pm. Detailed route discussion: The route to Gold Lake is mainly challenging between 3500ft and 4200ft. I've walked 3 different routes now, so to help others find the least miserable route I've combined those into a map, see the Flickr set for the detailed map ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/28657201005/in/album-72157671680797076/ also available at http://caltopo.com/m/LSE7 ). The blue section to 3500ft is obvious: it starts left (east) of the Lake Dorothy inlet and the bootpath is mostly easy to follow, either because it's visible, or because it's flagged with pink flags. The very beginning has a couple of steep spots that can be circumvented if necessary. There has been some renegade trail maintenance that is helpful. In the blue section, at one point there is a confusing orange flag across the creek. This is maybe from a winter trip, because this is not where you should cross. A little above 3500ft the bootpath starts climbing steeply in a cliffy section, and there is an option to go up or down. On my previous trip I only noticed the way down (green on the map). This option leads to a very nice waterfall. You can cross the creek there and proceed west of the creek (no visible bootpath), rejoining the pink flagged trail at the Fools Gold fork. From the 3500ft bootpath split, the flagged bootpath continues up and crosses the creek coming from lake 4225. The bootpath leads to the Fools Gold fork. For the pink route, the fork is easy to cross right at the fork point (pink flags are a bit higher, but this spot is clumsy). You should not cross the creek to Fools Gold, but continue up in the middle of the fork. There is a small old orange flag there, and pink flags soon pick up. If the pink flags are there, then finding the way up to a swamp area (see photo) at 3850ft is easy. On my previous trip I had a lot of problems in this area (both in and out) due to a steep cliff that is not visible on the map (indicated by the yellow area on my detail map). In my previous report I mistakenly wrote that this area is at the Moira fork. From the swamp area at 3850ft you can either follow the creek, or follow the pink flags to approach Gold Lake over the top of the ridge (red section on the map). The flag is visible on my photo of the swamp. Both routes have significant issues that may discourage you from continuing. The red route up is very, very steep. I followed this on the way back, and had to slide down over near-vertical rocks here and there. My dog struggled with some sections. On the other side of the ridge, the flagger seems to have identified a good bootpath down to 4200ft, but the section up is miserable, and I suspect that maybe he just didn't find the correct bootpath here. From the swamp area, a faint bootpath goes up and then down a gully, following my orange route. There is some faint path going up from there, either by animals or humans. Possibly that could be a better bootpath, but I only followed it for about 50ft and it could cliff out higher up the ridge (bottom looks easy, but the top of this ridge is cliffy). The orange option is what I have done three times now. The beginning is easy and just follows the creek in brush, but the black section is a really bad slide alder section. It will be a very physical struggle to get through, though mostly not dangerous. You may slip on the bark, but you can hold on to the alder. Make sure to have both your hands free. It's important to stay somewhat close to the creek (thought not right next to it), because higher up the slope is challenging (steeper and some rocks). The GPS track of my previous trip shows the point where I had to backtrack to a lower route ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/17153629787/in/album-72157652330764252/ ) At 4200ft my orange route rejoins the pink flagged route for the last climb to Gold Lake, which is fairly obvious. Stay close to the creek from 4400ft. My preferred route is: blue, pink, orange, pink. Dropping down to the waterfall (green) is fun, but does require a bit more route-finding in a confusing area. Legend for the detail map: - Blue: nice flagged bootpath - Pink: flagged route, okay to follow - Green: alternative that visits the waterfall - Red: steep route over the ridge, alternative to orange - Orange: route through slide alder section - Black: slide alder section - Yellow: cliffs not on topographic map, requires leaving creek

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/albums/72157671680797076