This was meant to be a 2-night trip, but I packed up and hiked out after first night.
The parking lot for Taylor River was over 3/4 full on a misty Sunday late morning. Pit toilet was stocked and clean, but there is no trash can so pack out your own garbage.
Saw a few groups of backpackers on their way down (despite the wet weekend!) as well as trailer runners and day hikers.
My plan was to hike up to Snoqualmie Lake and camp, and day hike up to Bear and Deer Lakes, maybe as far as Dorothy, to find some spots to sketch the next day, returning to Snoqualmie Lake for the second night. The walk up starts wide and narrows over time, becoming a single dirt track by the time you reach the climb up to Snoqualmie Lake. There are some water crossings, but none are too fast or deep to walk over. Big Creek Falls is at a wide concrete bridge a little way beyond Otter Falls and was flowing strong. The trail is sometimes quite rocky the further up you go but does not become a challenge until the last few miles up to the lake. There are several larger trees down between the Nordrum Lake junction and the climb up to Bear and Deer Lakes. The last two miles up to Snoqualmie Lake is often overgrown, muddy, and rocky (sometimes felt like climbing up a steam bed).
There were salmonberries ripening on the lower portion of trail, although heavily picked at this point. All of the higher elevation berries were still in flower or unripe.
Flowers! Creeping dogwood that became more prevalent the higher up I went, along with queen's cup/bead lily, big purple thistles, purple aster, western columbine, and a few I didn't know off the top of my head. Lots of pink coralroots popping up around the camping areas too. Looks like bear grass and fireweed will be going soon up high as well.
There was a very light rain by the time I arrived at the lake, and between that and traipsing through wet brush, I was soaked setting up camp. Rain pants and boots might have helped, but even my jacket was saturated through. As soon as I stopped, the bugs swarmed in and did not let up. I applied picaridin and got my ThermaCell going before realizing they were mostly gnat swarms and did not seem very deterred by my anti-mosquito measures. I donned a heat net, but it was still annoying, and they were bothering my dog a lot. We spent the evening in the tent relaxing and drying off.
Campsites: There is one before you descend to the lake, on the right up in the trees. There are 3 sites down by the lake (one lakefront on the right, one on the left at the edge of the forest, and one on the right a bit further on). I found another sort-of-hidden site on the right in the trees after climbing up to see if I could get away from the bugs (did not help). I set my pack here and went to look for a running water source/the site further down I read about online. I found the trail to the last lakefront site just after the footbridges before the climb to the other lakes begins. Its steep, muddy, and overgrown, but the site is nice and has a little peninsula and a metal fire ring. I went back for my pack and set up here.
As I saw mentioned in another report, the water was strangely very warm to touch.
It sprinkled off and on all night. I'd hoped that some sun or a breeze would deter the bugs, or that maybe the higher lakes had more wind. The morning was pleasant but the bugs were still out in force, so we had a quiet tent morning before taking our hike up to Bear and Deer Lakes (in still-wet shoes and pants). There is one large tree down before the climb up, and the trail is narrow and brushy. I tried knocking water off with a trekking pole but it only succeeded in slowing down the dampness. There were some nice sites up at the other lakes, but as soon as I stopped very long, more gnats found us. I decided to turn around before going to Dorothy Lake as I didn't want to do the extra climb back and I thought I might bail and hike out if bugs hadn't improved back at camp.
They did not improve. They were finding their way in my head net as I was packing up. I didn't savor the idea of spending the whole sunny day in a tent (the dog doubly so), and figured I might as well use it walking. We headed back down around noon, stopping at Otter Falls for over an hour to eat and sketch. There were thankfully no biting bugs at Otter Falls, or most of the lower part of the trail. I noticed some campsites off trail near the river both in the Otter Falls and Snoqualmie Lake/Quartz Creek junction vicinity.
No litter, no poop bags, only 1 group playing music out of a speaker. Mostly had the trail to ourselves. Made it back to the trailhead before 5:30 pm and there were maybe 5 cars in the lot including mine.
Comments