Greider Lakes

Score. Two days of swimming on a perfect summer weekend. How lucky can a dog get? Yesterday, it was Hope, Mig and Swimming Deer lakes with the driver and KT (and 4-legged Clover). Today, it's best buddy B who joined me, Clover and the driver for a little adventure up to Greider Lakes. There was much discussion about where to go today - since B's ankle wasn't the greatest. Nothing too steep. Greider Lakes sounded good - none of us had been there. It's quite a ways up the Sultan Basin Road off of Hwy 2. The road turns into a gravel road as you reach Spada Lake - but continues on another 10 or so miles (dead-ending up by the Boulder Lake trailhead). We left Seattle about 7:40 a.m. - wanting to avoid the I-90 craziness with the SeaFair activities. We were on the trail by about 9:30 a.m.

It was a lovely morning. There were a 1/2 dozen cars in the lot and we figured they probably were campers up at the lakes. The trail was still wet with morning dew - gaiters might have been nice. We passed two lovely little ponds and started up the trail which would include multiple switchbacks through lovely 2nd growth. It was fairly steep in some places, often we found steps - and in a couple of cases, actual stairs. The old trail book talks about having to scramble along exposed cliff areas right before you reach the lake - that's no longer the case. The trail is easy - gaining about 1200' up to the lake. Just before you reach Lower Greider, you go through a nice, level forested area. B and Sadie couldn't wait to jump into the lake - it already was quite warm. Clover wasn't as convinced.

After a refreshing swim, we headed towards the outlet stream and the trail that takes you to Upper Greider (another 200' or so of gain in about 1/2 mile) The views at the end of Lower Greider looking towards the cirque where Upper Greider sits, were quite lovely. Even better was the evidence of soon-to-be ripe huckleberries - they were still a little tart today. This stretch is mainly along unforested trail that's a bit overgrown. In a short time, we were at Upper Greider - a lovely lake (actually, didn't seem that much bigger than Lower Greider) We wandered the trail to a couple of camp sites and thought about doing another swim - but opted to try and find the trail that would lead to the viewpoint. We passed on couple on their way in and they weren't sure where it was, so we headed back down the trail a little ways to see if we had missed it on our way in. Sure enough, B spotted it just about at the point where you can first see Upper Greider - it's not that obvious, but if you're looking for it, you'll find it - it spurs off to the right from the main trail. The trail is fairly obvious for about 1/4 mile, going through fairly open forest, but before long, you are right in the middle of salmon berry bushes, elderberry and who knows what else? It was thick. Obviously doesn't get much use, but you can see (sorta') that there is a trail. We started up. In another 1/4 mile, you come to some boulders - now it's tricky - we saw a crude arrow on top of a rock - unfortunately, it was pointing towards the direction we had just come! There were limited views from this point. We poked and climbed - first one way, then another. Clover and Sadie thought this was great sport. Finally, we saw what we thought was the trail up through some boulders and underbrush. Up we went - we got to one point, however, where what looked to be the ""right"" way was up some rock slabs that had water running down them - they looked just a little to slick. So, we opted to go right of the slab and up some more brush-covered boulders. We got to within about 150' of the 3600' viewpoint and decided to bag it. The brush was just too much to fight - I'm not positive we were on the right track - but we were getting close to what appeared to be the viewpoint. In any case, we agreed to head back down - besides, by now the black flies and other assorted buzzing/flying things were driving B nuts and we wanted to get out of there. Once back on the main trail, we opted to go back to Lower Greider for another swim and escape from the bugs. Ok by Sadie! So back we headed. This time, we all got in - the water was quite refreshing and a welcome relief from the bugs. Clover still wasn't convinced enough to swim. We dried off quickly and high-tailed it down the trail. We had seen several groups of overnighters leaving when we were on our way in - so there were very few people at the lakes when we were there - however, we passed at least 6 groups coming up the hill as we headed down. On the way out, we passed by the ponds again and had the pleasure of seeing a gorgeous blue heron taking flight. We also saw what had to be the biggest skunk cabbage (or the remains of it) that I had ever seen! Once back to the car, we made a quick change of clothes and jumped into the car and shut all the doors and windows to get away from the bugs. The driver got a bug bite yesterday of some kind that had her whole lower leg from the knee down swollen! They are vicious. It took us about 4 hours, including our swims and detours car-to-car. A lovely day regardless of the attack bugs! Sadie and Clover are resting comfortably from their big weekend.