Cougar Lake #958.1,Pacific Crest (South Cascades) #2000

This was my son's and mine first trip together in 10 years; vacations just didn't match. We left Tuesday the 12th (should have left on Monday). The weather was perfect with the prediction of possible rain showers Thursday afternoon the 14th. Our plan was to hike south from Chinook Pass, do the Cougar Lakes loop and return on Friday. The Pacific Crest was dusty to say the least, but not unexpected. Blueberries are just about ready and are plentiful as well. We passed a few people on the trail packing out to Chinook Pass as we were going in. Our first night was at beautiful little Anderson Lake, at about 4.5 miles, that is just inside the RNP boundry. We set up camp on the West end of the lake in a large meadow and had the entire lake to ouselves till about 7pm when a couple of people showed up and stayed at the East end. No running water into or out of the lake; the lake water itself was amazingly warm. Bugs weren't too bad either, mostly deer flies and as long as there was any breeze, no mosquitos. That night we heard some bugeling elk. The next morning we awoke to fog and low clouds and definitely cooler temperatures, but as the sun made it over the ridge we had blue sky again. We packed up and headed the 3.5 miles to the Cougar Lakes. Near the junction of the PC and trail 958 we talked with a group that mentioned they heard of possible snow flurries above 5000 feet by Thursday the next day. Hmmm, well possible isn't for sure. We got to Little Cougar about 2pm and set up camp in the boulder field at the West end. Again, the entire two lake region to ourselves. Many nice camping spots here, and a small trickle of water going into the larger lake and nearly no bugs of any kind. As the day went on we started to see high clouds moving in, but we were entertained by a small heard of goats on the ridge behind us and of course the marmots and pikas. By evening it was certainly cloudy and the far off American Ridge becoming obscured. I told my son we might get wet before morning. But about 9pm we looked out to see a perfectly clear sky with thousands of stars! Maybe we'll get lucky I thought. Well about midnight we heard the unmistakable sound of sleet hitting the tent. By 7am we were in mixed snow and rain. We waited hoping to pack up between showers, but there was no break. So we ate a few granola bars in the tent and then packed as fast as we could, but everything got pretty wet anyway. We decided to not do the loop to the 5700 foot junction with the PC to the south, but to start back the way we came as the elevations were a little lower and it would save about 1.5 miles of wet trail. Now, all the dust we complained about the first two days was mud. Back at the 5300 foot junction of 958 an the PC we met two guys hiking the Pacific Crest to Canada. They said this was the first bad weather they had encountered and the coldest. As we hiked back towards Chinook Pass the mixed rain and snow just turned to snow. It's amazing just how quiet it is in the forest when it's snowing. Our original plan was to stay Thursday night at Dewey Lakes, but looking like the snow was not going to stop any time soon, we decided to just keep going. And wouldn't you know it, we no sooner had Chinook Pass in sight when the snow stopped and the sun came out! But we could now see there was a definite snow line about 5000 feet. So this day we hiked about 8.5 miles in a snow storm and ended up pretty wet. Although this isn't the first time we've ever gotten wet while backpacking it will be memorable in that there were very few people, we had mostly beautiful days and it was just great to get out again on the trail with my son.