Found a pair of mittens at the Hyak Sno-Park a few days ago.

Yesterday I went snowshoeing on FS-9070 towards Mount Catherine. I went off trail following along the west side of Cold Creek down to the little campground and P2C Trail which I took back. That turned out to be an enjoyable 7 mile loop. Plenty of deep, unconsolidated snow anywhere off trail obviously.

If you're not chasing views and want an adventure this is a great choice. There was enough bare shoulder to park my Outback on Snoqualmie Drive at the switch back in the road. The snow was firm at the embankment, so I strapped my snowshoes to my pack, put on my spikes, and started chasing blue diamonds. There's a small snow bridge to cross the creek.

Travel was easy all the way to Hyas Lake, but once the trail turned into the forest again, it was time to put the snowshoes on. From here to the upper powerline swath diamonds continued to be easy to follow. Once there though I made the one wrong choice of the day. Across the swath and groomed trail, I could see a diamond in the far tree while I also saw a flag further uphill by the pylon. I chose to go with the diamond, but after seeing a couple more I lost track of them. I followed a few groomed trails, then picked up an old snowshoe track. This went okay for a while but started to trend towards Frog Lake rather than higher up on the ridge, so when I saw an old ski track coming down from the ridge, I followed this until I came out at a clearing. I decided my best bet was to go straight up the ridge and voila, more diamonds! I easily followed them the rest of the way to Nordic Pass. Though I scouted around a few humps, views were hard to come by.

The return trip went fine with me following the diamonds all the way, coming out at the ribbon near the pylon that also had a blue diamond attached. Though a lot of the travel is at an easy grade there's a few steep spots, and the up and down and in and out around tree wells add a good workout. There were many spots that needed a few quick steps across a knife edge between tree wells, but nothing that was dangerous as the snow cover isn't that deep. The weather was perfect all day, neither hot nor cold with a sun break or two. I tracked 8.03 miles with 1574 of gain. Thank you to the good folks who put all the diamonds up!    #MemberAppreciation.

Started at 8am on a weekend day, which is best to achieve parking in the lot next to the intersection of Hyak Drive and SR906 before the Summit lifts open at 9am. Walked 10 minutes up Snoqualmie Drive to the TH where we put on snowshoes. The thin snow crust easy broke through to deep, soft snow beneath. Our intended route was to navigate uphill using the creek as a right-side “handrail” until finding a safe place to cross over it. (Note that this un-named creek is not Hyak Creek.) Snow on the bridge at approximately 47.39563, -121.40441 was stacked too high and steep for safe crossing with snowshoes; so, we continued uphill. A stylized version of our intended route is show in the picture. Shortly after crossing the powerline right-of-way, the Rampart ski lift becomes visible through the trees. We stayed in the trees and behind the ski slope boundary signs. The creek remained on our right and aptly named Creek Run downhill ski run was through the trees on our left. The drop to the creek was steep and unsafe to get too close. At some points, passable space between the ski run and creek was quite narrow. Crossing the inter-summit Lower Crossover and East Crossover ski runs was easy in the morning, but skier traffic upon our later return had to be carefully negotiated. (Having discovered this could-be-significant issue, it would be better to do this route on a day that Summit East is not open.)

At ~3300’ elevation the creek drainage became shallow and we were able to veer away from the ski runs toward Hyak Meadows. Continuing westward for about 0.25 mi before heading northwest toward Hyak Lake. From the southwest end of the lake, we followed a blue diamond route (not shown on any map) to the Outer Loop/Mt Catherine Loop nordic ski trail and headed to the Grand Junction warming hut for a lunch break, taking care to stay off the groomed portion of the trail. There’s a portapotty at Grand Junction.

After our break, we snowshoed clockwise around Rockland Lake. The XC tracks are set close to the edge of the trail; so, we focused carefully to stay off these tracks. Really, the ~1 mile loop around Rockland Lake was not that interesting and provided no view of the lake. Along the loop, there’s another XC trail pointing to a viewpoint; perhaps venturing in that direction might have added interest. Back at Grand Junction, we headed downhill via the large blue & white sign, “Hyak Lake”, pleasant route bringing us to the western edge of Hyak Lake. From there, we followed the southern shore to find our earlier tracks and used these to head back to the Snoqualmie Drive TH.

Total distance ~5 miles, ~1100’ elevation gain. Navigation skills and ability to recognize and avoid tree wells is required. Flowing water was observed exiting Hyak Lake, meaning that travel across the lake is not a safe route (despite some visible tracks going that way).

We did a snowshoe that took us to a number of snow covered lakes. Our goal was Surveyors. We parked at Silver Fir and made our way past the restrooms in the back of the lodge. From there we started snowshoeing up to a road that is groomed. We made a left, crossed a bridge and after a few hundred feet spotted the blue diamonds on the right side of the road. From there we followed the Diamonds to the Grand Junction. We passed by Hyak on the way. We used gaia to get to Surveyor Lake. We opted to go up under the power lines, which proved to be steep and a wee bit hard. Came back using the road. Much easier. From there we did the Rockdale loop, checked out the lake and did the side trip to the view point. This addition was worth the trip. Retraced our steps from Grand Junction and made it back to the car. Perfect snowshoe 

First time snowshoe to Hyak Lake via Silver Fir & Hyak Creek.  Note we did not go all the way to Nordic pass ( appears no WTA website option for Hyak Lake stand-alone ).

Turned out to be surprisingly pleasant little hideaway between Ski Acres and Hyak ski fields, and will likely do again. Conditions were perfect for snowshoeing ( 5-12' fresh on firm ).  No other folks seen on the trail ( not counting the zoo at the base lodge )

ACCESS

• The access in this area has always been confusing due to it's proximity to the Summit, and scattered private lands. Below is what I have been able to gather, but am no expert, and the rules seem to change every year ( just look at the uphill and back bowls passes! )
• If you are Summit season pass holders, like us, access is easy, park at Silver Fir, as the passes usually cover the Nordic trails including the snow shoe ones. Likewise if you rent snowshoes at Hyak ( from which you can also access Hyak Lake, just longer )
• I'm sure there is a legal way to explore the area otherwise, it's just not obvious were the corridors are, and parking situation
• I think for these reasons many folks simply go to the Hyak Snow Park and bypass this area.

TRAIL

• We started at the Silver Fir parking lot, behind the building at the dumpsters :)
• From here find your way uphill a few minutes to the first of two inter-area crossover trails
• Walk southward for 5 minutes to just past Hyak Creek where you will see a yellow snowshoe marker
• Head uphill.  There are yellow, blue, pink and white trail markers scattered what appears to be randomly across the hill from here on, so don't stress to much about them
• In general the path one doesn't get too far away from Hyak creek, but don't think it matters too much since you eventually will hit the powerline ski trail known as I-90 @3340'-ish
• We came out a little east, so walked along the powerline for 50 yards before heading back up
• Soon you start breaking out onto the snow covered meadows, and then the lake

Before returning, we walked around the lake, but be careful with early season conditions. My wife punched through a snow bridge several feet thick into the boot-high outlet stream, which cost me a hot chocolate, and again  re-enforced the old adage that you should always let your partner go first :)

The woods and the lake were quite pretty in the snow, and was amazed how quiet it was, you wouldn't know the ski runs were there.

P.S. The lake sits just below the Nordic Grand Junction warming hut, so you can continue up to there, and/or the wide expanse of terrain towards Nordic Pass