What better way to celebrate summery April weather than a day of snoeshowing!? My brother and I packed up some sandwiches and bolted (read as: crawled) out of town for Stevens Pass, making it to the mountains by about 10am. There's a nice parking lot plowed just past the train tracks, a short walk from the summer trailhead - we only saw one other car there in the morning, despite our late start.
On the topic of that late start, we fought some soft and slippery snow all the way up and down. This hike is awesome but I'd want to get headed up a couple hours earlier if I did it again. We were relatively discerning with our steps, but both of us put a foot through a couple feet of sun-softened snow on our walk back from the lake, and were probably lucky to escape without any twisted knees or ankles. All in all it was a good refresher as far as snow evaluating basics are concerned.
The views were decent on the way up the creek, with what must be Windy Mountain capping the view back to the north. Better views were to be had once we made it to Surprise Lake, which is just barely starting to thaw out at the far north and south ends. Spark Plug and Thunder Mountains beckoned in the distance. We found a nice resting place right around where the summer campsites must be, kicked back, and enjoyed a picnic before turning around and racing the sun back to the car. For my money, the creek valley was at its most beautiful in the hour just after the sun had barely dipped past the western ridge - plenty well lit for hiking, but dominated by the muted blueish haze of dusk rather than the brilliant white snowy glare we sunglassed away during the day.
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