Soda Peaks Lake — Thursday, Jul. 22, 1999

Southwest Washington > Lewis River Region

We went to Soda Peak Lake and back, 2.3 miles one way. We started and finished at the high end of the trail(west end on road 54). Spent one night at the lake. The trail has a number of trees blown down scattered along the length of the portion of the trail we traveled. The trail was snow covered in places on the decent to the lake. We lost the trail about 1/3 of the way down to the lake from the saddle. We then headed down the hill to the lake and were mostly on snow till arriving at the lake. (Hint: The trail goes around a corner at the end of a switchback and into snow and a large tree that has blown down. Do not cross over the tree. This is were the trail levels off, look higher on the hillside than you might expect for the trail. We figured all of this out on the return hike.) Judging from the direction other parties arrived at the lake, we were not the only ones who had difficulty following the trail. The campsites at the lake are clear of snow. In the more protected spots near the lake the snow is still 2.5 to 3 feet deep.