TL;DR: despite the wet weather, I had a very enjoyable and very private overnight trip to these beautiful lakes!
My initial plan was to go to the even-more-isolated Nordrum Lake (which starts from the same trail), but after reading reports on the trail condition (i.e. the trail barely exists and is full of blowdowns), I decided with these, which is where I had my first ever fastpacking trip last year.
Predictably, once I got past the popular Otter Falls I had the trail to myself. But what surprised me is that I also had all the lakes to myself! There was not a single person at Snoqualmie, Deer and Bear lake, which seems crazy for such beautiful lakes on a Friday night in August. But I didn’t mind :)
It had rained earlier in the day, so the trails were wet. And since lots of sections are quite overgrown, my shorts, shoes and socks were completely soaked. And being a minimalist, I had no change of clothes. Oh well, we’ll deal with that later.
Last year, I made the mistake of stopping too early and setting camp at Snoqualmie Lake. This time, after having dinner there, I pushed to Deer, and then Bear lake, where I set camp.
Since it was still early, I left camp behind and pushed some of the way toward Lake Dorothy, so I could get a view from above before sunset. I also ate tons of delicious blueberries (or huckleberries?) on the way! I then got back to my Bear camp.
The socks/shoes were hopeless, but I attempted to dry my shorts by hanging them from the top of the tent interior, hoping they would dry a bit overnight.
I didn’t have a great night, but I did catch some decent stretches of sleep. In the morning, it was raining. At 5am, I broke camp, which is not fun to do when it’s raining. You end up inevitably packing a bunch of dirt and rain when you fold the tent.
My attempts to dry my shorts were 100% ineffective. I guess nothing dries at night inside a tent with no wind or sun. And of course, the shoes and socks were still completely soaked. Putting all that back on was unpleasant, but it didn’t bother me all that much.
Given the intensifying rain and since I had already gone part of the way to Dorothy the night before, I decided to directly head back. There was still no one in the morning at all 3 lakes, but on the way down, I passed a trail running, and a pair of full weight backpackers.
On the way back, I made a short stop at Otter Falls. The water flow was a lot weaker than when I was there last year, probably because of the drought.
Overall, I really enjoyed this trip. Despite being a little wet, it was an awesome place to spend time in nature, and away from people :)
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