Marten Lake — Sunday, May. 1, 2016

Snoqualmie Region > North Bend Area

We have been to Marten Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness three times on sunny weekend days in May and June and never seen a soul. It's a low elevation lake (about 3000') so makes a good spring destination. It's about a 4.8 mile walk to the lake, the first 3.5 miles of which are quite easy, but the last ~1.3 miles are on unmaintained trail which is a bit of a challenge. Total elevation gain is 1900' but most of that is in the last 1.3 miles. The hike begins on the Snoqualmie Lake/Taylor River trail (the road is washed out for most vehicles about 1/4 mile before the trailhead but plenty of room to park at the spot where the Middle Fork road turns right up to the Dingford Creek trailhead). The unmarked turn-off to the Marten Lake trail is about 50 yards before the large log bridge over Marten Creek at ~3.5 miles in. Back up from the bridge and look for a large dead tree; the beginning of the Marten Lake trail is just across the Snoqualmie Lake trail from the dead tree. The trail is roughly divided into thirds: the first third is in forest with little undergrowth, the second third crosses a brushy talus slope, and the final third heads straight up a wooded hillside and then edges down gently to the lake basin. For most of the way, the trail does not hug the creek which flows from the lake down to the Taylor River, but it parallels it and is never too far away. In the first third, because there is very little undergrowth, it is difficult to follow the trail. In fact, there are several different paths that have been trod. There are many trees to climb over and around--many more than a few years ago, but you can generally identify a worn path. The trail opens onto a talus slope soon after skirting around a very large rock and then crosses a brushy talus slope, which is quite overgrown but easy to follow. For the final third, there are again a few different paths (we took a different way up than the way we climbed down) and all climb pretty steeply, but this part does not last long. The way eases about 1/4 mile before the lake but here we encountered our first snow which was about 4' deep. We postholed through in several places so treaded quite carefully here. The lake was mainly still frozen over but we took a quick dip along the edge and laid out in the sun. Climbed on the logs at the lake outlet. A real treat to reliably have solitude at an alpine lake.