Armed with a Gaia Track from an old trip report and hope in my heart, I set out to do Mount Catherine from Hyak.. And didn’t even come close, though I did have a great day filled with all sorts of shenanigans. I won’t post my Gaia track, as I ended up places where I don’t think I was supposed to be (on snowshoes) and I don’t want y’all to yell at me.. 😂 Though based on other snowshoe tracks I found the other day, I wasn’t the only person with this confusion. 

Mid way through the hike I stumbled on a map by the warming hut, which I will post below.. based on this map it seems that it’s pretty limited where snowshoers are allowed to be. The Gaia track I had been following went on a bunch of the groomed trails where, according to the map, snowshoers actually aren’t supposed to go. I wish I had seen this map at the parking area, but what can you do. At least with the current level of grooming I was not sinking at all, and therefore wasn’t messing up the track (and yes, I stayed on the edge!) Also, I definitely wasn’t the only one, as I stumbled on lots of snowshoe tracks through the day, and saw several skiers walking up in boots, carrying their skis. 

Anyway.. So I followed some groomed trails until those ended and then I followed some snowshoe tracks, hoping they were going towards Mount Catherine, even though looking at the map I didn’t think they were. They weren’t, but they did go to an awesome viewpoint! It was foggy in the morning but the sun came out right as I got the viewpoint, which was amazing! I wasted some time trying to find a route towards Mount Catherine and struggling as each try ended in a too steep slope, or an area with clear obstacles under the snow, etc. I finally found where I think I needed to go but it was getting late so I gave in and headed back. 

Took some more trails I wasn’t supposed to be on until I reached the warming hut.. saw the map and realized I wasn’t supposed to be there and took the shortest route to Hyak Lake which IS a snowshoe trail. I planned to just follow that snowshoe trail to the road and then walk the road back to the upper lot where I parked. That was all fine and good for a while, until the clear snowshoe tracks crossed a groomed trail (which didn’t look like it went in the direction I needed, and wasn’t on the map) and didn’t come out the other side (where it looked like it should go, based on Gaia.) I ended up trying to make my own route and getting kind of lost.. I mean not actually lost because I could see where I was on Gaia but the way forward was NOT clear at all. I’d find some ski or snowshoe tracks, but then they’d disappear or go in the wrong direction. I saw some blue diamonds on the trees but no tracks and no clear way forward (because the trees were too dense or there was a creek or clear obstacles under the snow.) I kept trying and failing to find a way back to the road, and in the end I finally just saw a cabin and cut through the backyard. I’m sorry cabin owner, but it was getting dark and I was having a TIME. 

Once I got back to the road I took off my snowshoes and easily made it back to my car. The sunset was SPECTACULAR tonight. My reward for a day full of hijinks.

I think next time I try for Mount Catherine (because hope springs eternal) I’m just going to try from FR 9070 because that does look like a legal and more straightforward snowshoe route. Overall I found this area pretty hard to navigate, due to ambiguous or no markings on the trails, trails on Gaia that looked like dense forest with no clear way through, trails that existed irl but weren’t on Gaia, and obstacles that made going off the trails difficult. 

Decided to try to snowshoe to Hyak lake and further on the Nordic pass trail. I drove to the actual TH in wta and there was no parking in that neighborhood. Decided Hyak parking was my best option and tried to meet the trail by taking nordic trails to the right of the ski slope and parking lot. It took me a while and i eventually found the trail using gaia. It is somewhat marked with blue squares and occasional orange ribbon. Made it to Hyak lake and wanted to continue, but found it difficult to follow the trail. The marks are infrequent and crosses nordic trails and looking at gos constantly gets old. Decided to check out Rockdale lake instead. Used the groomed trails to get to it and there is a sign to get down to the lake. Wandered around the multiple nordic trails and came back a different way.  Nice day snowshoeing. Used snowshoes, gators and must have gps.

Parked at Hyak, where you need a permit, and decided to snowshoe to Hyak lake. Went right from the chair lift and followed various snowy roads for a while. These had various degrees of grooming. From perfect to not at all. You need navigation to make it, because there are many enter twined roads. At some point we found Nordic Pass Trail. This was marked with blue squares on trees. We followed those. There is a lot of snow, but doable. You do need snowshoes and gators.

Decided to go for a quick snowshoeing trip to Hyak Lake while my son was doing his nordic ski lesson at The Summit.

I started from the Hyak Creek Trailhead which is behind the Silver Fir Lodge. I crossed the first ski run, followed the pink tape, went uphill on the ski run. I missed the snowshoeing trail sign on the tree and had to backtrack.

The trail was difficult to follow at times and I got lost for a moment. Found the trail again by following the blue diamond signs on the tree and previous snowshoe tracks.

I saw the power line, crossed the last ski run and went uphill to the lake. There's a meadow that looked like a lake, just before the lake ;)

I had the lake to myself although I saw a group of snowshoers that went past the lake. I looked at the map that there are trails that can take you further to Rockdale and Surveyors lake. Maybe that's where they're going.

The lake was gorgeous. I think it's perfect for a short snow camping trip.

Snow was crusty at the beginning and powdery towards the lake. Unfortunately I forgot my snowshoes so I hiked with the spikes and postholed to my calf all over the place. Took about 2 hours roundtrip.