Gaia is the best $60 I spend, every year. It allows me to create my own combination routes, linking trails from various trailheads to navigate, offline, to so many beautiful places.
That said, don’t do what I did yesterday, which was to get all excited about an unexpected day off, draw a quick route without zooming in to check how steep it was, and only remember to check WTA trip reports on one of the two linked trails.
The Lodge Lake trail is plenty evident, but it still has lots of snow and downed trees. The connection to the Annette Lake trail was so steep that it turned a planned in-and-out into a “Welp, not going back up that way” loop. And in the last 5 of 18 miles, I regretted having started my hike at an exit with “Summit” in the name.
Details:
- Only car at the Lodge Lake (PCT) trailhead, 9 AM on Memorial Day weekend. No toilet.
- Snow and a large downed tree immediately after leaving the lot.
- Long snowless section, crossing under the ski lifts.
- Dove back into trees and snow near Beaver Lake; often 1-2 feet deep, clear footprints to follow but signs of other folks sinking up to knee/thigh depth.
- Long snowless downhill to Lodge Lake; several more large downed trees.
- Rocky section with beautiful views near Rockdale Creek.
- Very steep, straight, rocky downhill on 9070-115 (turning right off the PCT).
- At bottom, “Cascade Crest Connector” started as steep but do-able dirt, ended in a extremely loose, rocky slide/scramble, landing on the Palouse to Cascades trail.
- To this point, I had seen zero people. After this point, I saw people constantly.
- Left on the Palouse to Cascades trail, then left up to Annette Lake – absolutely gorgeous. Prettiest lake I’ve seen in a long time. Toilet right before the lake in good shape.
- If you don’t mind crowds, music, beer, and dogs, turn left at the lake. If you want quieter lakeside spots, turn right and cross the logs at the outflow of the lake.
- Back to the Annette Lake trailhead, then up Denny Creek Road and adjacent trails, from I-90 exit 47 to the car at exit 52. Eight cars in the lot by arrival at 5 PM.
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