Nosh Nosh Wahtum — Saturday, May. 23, 2015

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

A veteran backpacker recommended this trip to me as a great "starter trip": I was accompanied by my 12 year old daughter, and it was only her second backpacking trip, so I wanted it to be wildly successful so that instead of saying "Mom, I wanna go to the mall" she'd say "Let's go backpacking again!" I think we had great success. :-) We didn't have any trouble on the road in, although as another trip report showed, there is a river over the road. It's not shallow by any means, but my friend's SUV had no issue getting across. I wouldn't go in a sedan, but an SUV is fine and I think my Subaru Forester would have been okay, too (although it made me nervous). The trail is lovely. Beautiful forest with many wildflowers; we saw orchids, trilliums galore, bunchberry, lupine, and many, many more varieties. There were patches of snow as we got towards the lake, but much less than I'd read on the last trip report before we went. It's melting quickly, and while we were at camp we could see it recede and puddle. We had no difficulty finding a campsite, even on a sunny long weekend. There was a fire pit and enough room for two tents - perfection. I was also delighted to find a pit toilet, which while backpacking feels like the height of luxury! We could hear frogs at night, and we watched a family of bufflehead ducks paddle around the lake; we watched an osprey fishing as well. The second day we hiked towards Cathedral Rock, and ran into many day hikers doing the same thing. We encountered snow fields that were deep but quickly melting, and unfortunately my lanky dog was sinking into the soft snow up to his armpits with every step, so we decided not to go all the way to the rock, but had a great picnic on a dry spot of ground, surrounded by snow. The girls took a shiny thermal blanket and turned it into a sled, and snow angels were made.....all in shorts, because it was warm and sunny. It was gorgeous and perfect and I loved every second! I would do this hike again in a heartbeat. I'll bet that within a few weeks the wildflowers up top will be in full bloom, and I can't wait to go back to check it out. How we had backpacking success with 12 year girls: Step one: 12 year olds only want to do things with other 12 year olds. We invited another mother daughter duo who were up for adventure. Success! The girls bonded, and so did the moms. Step two: We kept it short. The hike to Mason Lake is only 2.5 miles, so incredibly doable, even though there is some elevation climb. We set up camp, and did a day hike, so that we still got to move but it wasn't too strenuous. We hiked up day one, camped, day hiked day two, camped, and then came home on the third day. It would have been doable as a day hike no problem, but we wanted to backpack. :-) Step three: Lake swimming. Anything with swimming is FUN! Step four: We brought great (if heavy) food. Eggs, cheese, and tortillas for breakfast; spaghetti with home made meat sauce for dinner; lots of snacks. The end result is that the girls want to do this "all the time" and we plan to work up to longer distances. Hurrah!