Mason Lake

Arrived at the Mason Lakes
trail head at 2pm on a weekday. One other car at the huge trailhead parking lot. I proudly dispalyed my trail pass parking permit and was off to the actual trailhead which was really about 1mile further up the overgrown FS road (I remember so many years ago you could park right next to the trial). Once on the trial I started to have real-time flashbacks of the steepness of the so called trail. I always start out every hiking season with a hike to Mason Lake. that way I know I can handle just about anything the season can throw at me. I must confess that I had let several years go by without doing any hiking and I was now basking in the beauty of everthing I loved and missed about the sport; in my experience there is nothing quite as exhilerating as a hike in the mountains. The air had that freshness of spring, heavily flavored with pine; nothing but the sound of a creek and an occasional rush of wind through the trees. In a couple of hours I had reached the mostly snow covered Mason Lake. Blue sky was peeking through the clouds as I relaxed on a perfectly contoured rock overlooking the lake. The surrounding terrain was still covered in snow which seemed to contribute to the chilly air temperature. Seeking an excuse to get my circulation going I proceeded to hike acoss the snow to the saddle /Mt. Defiance Trail. I could see the snow free shores of Lake Kulla Kulla below. It looked a mere stones throw away but I soon dicovered, after being marooned on a rocky precipice, that it is better to find the trail rather than risk a steep tumble. The Cliffs on the SW shore of Lake Kulla Kulla were beautifully adorned in at least a half dozen cascading waterfalls from the snow-fields of Mt Defiance ( I vowed to return). It was getting late so I had to start back to the truck. All things considered, the Mason Lake trail was as bad as I remembered it: mud holes, steep & eroded,windfall and the treacherous boulder field. If it never gets any worse than I wouldn't change a thing!