This was a harder hike than we thought, it was so hot out and a bit of elevation gain.

This is a great dayhike for those visiting the Mt. St. Helens area. Driving time is 1 hour from Amboy, Wa. or 1 1/2hrs. from Vancouver or Woodland. We started on the trail section that connects to Forest Rd. 54. The trail winds through the forest and then climbs up a series of steep switchbacks to a short ridge hike. Then you go down quickly to the lake. Expect to climb over, under, and around at least a half dozen big trees. It is about 2 1/2 miles in to the lake.It takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get in. The lake has several good campsites and if the sun is out there is a great view of Mt. Adams. The rainbow trout are jumping...we caught a beauty.The huckleberries are just starting to get sweet. The bugs were not too bad either (always an important detail)! Several weekend hikers/campers were headed in while we were headed out so go early for the best sites.

The lake is totally snow and ice free, with a mere patch or two of snow peeking out from woods at the far end of the lake. We two decided this was going to be the coolest day of the next seven and that this trail being almost entirely in the shade of forest would suit us fine. Met no other hikers on trail, although a forest ranger on busman's holiday had just finished catching 8 or 9 small brook trout at the lake as we approached. After descending to the lake from the upper trailhead, he was continuing down to the lower one and a pick-up there by friends. Us old-timers had no desire to hike the flat, dull mile plus of the new lower Trapper Creek/Observation Peak trail. So we opted to continue on the road to Government Mineral Springs'water pump and the gate stopping all public traffic beyond. A quarter mile on the road leads to the semi-maintained wilderness trail along the creek to the junction with the spur leading right to Observation Peak and Trapper Creek Drainage. A left trending turn starts one then up switchbacks and west for several miles on a relatively soft tread of pine needles. No views. Several blowdowns to negotiate, but the FS appears to have sawed some really big dudes, allowing us to proceed comfortably to the last steep quarter mile traverse up to the lake. Start: 1,200' Lake: 3,777 Distance: 3.2 m Little elevation loss on way up.

We went to Soda Peak Lake and back, 2.3 miles one way. We started and finished at the high end of the trail(west end on road 54). Spent one night at the lake. The trail has a number of trees blown down scattered along the length of the portion of the trail we traveled. The trail was snow covered in places on the decent to the lake. We lost the trail about 1/3 of the way down to the lake from the saddle. We then headed down the hill to the lake and were mostly on snow till arriving at the lake. (Hint: The trail goes around a corner at the end of a switchback and into snow and a large tree that has blown down. Do not cross over the tree. This is were the trail levels off, look higher on the hillside than you might expect for the trail. We figured all of this out on the return hike.) Judging from the direction other parties arrived at the lake, we were not the only ones who had difficulty following the trail. The campsites at the lake are clear of snow. In the more protected spots near the lake the snow is still 2.5 to 3 feet deep.

It was a nice day for a hike I started early to beat the heat. 7:30 am started out at a brisk pace. The first 1.5 miles is relatively flat. The last two miles is pretty steep with many switchbacks. The trail is within the forest all the way up to the lake, and fairly well marked. There are a couple of temporary yellow directional signs at some of the intersections. It took a little under 3 hours to get to the lake. Besides a couple that had spent the night I was the only one there. It is a beautiful small lake with plenty of fish in it, too bad I didn't bring my fishing pole. Mostly small fish, but I did see one about 10 inches. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout. There were tons of crawfish in the shallows under the rocks. They would have made nice bait if I would have brought a rod.