Lake Dorothy - Lake Bear - Lake Deer — Thursday, Jul. 11, 2002

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

Thanks to Garth for his report which gave us the idea to go up there! The blowdowns are all singular trees, easily circumnavigated. A few mudspots (which could become deeper/wider with the weekend traffic), but not bothersome. Just a few snowspots at the S-end of Dorothy, again nothing to even mention. Trail crews finished up the bridge railing there this morning. No problems to Bear Lake either. Just a few snow fields which you can see the undermelt easily enough to avoid it. (Stay on the most elevated areas of the snow). One relatively large snowpatch about 3/4 of the way up to the highest spot prior to descending to Bear Lake was big enough to obscure the trail exit and we had to walk along the edges to find it. No major inconvenience and no postholing. Bear/Deer Lakes 100% open, N-facing shorelines have snow remaining. Tried swimming in Bear Lake - I do this a lot in mountain lakes and this was the coldest water I've encountered in a long time (i.e. the pain just never went away...). One warning to all: At the lunch spot, my wife found two ticks (!) on the log we were sitting on. Didn't think they were distributed that high up, but the 100% Deet came out in a hurry. Otherwise, a few no-see-um bites moslty at the trailhead and at the N-end of Dorothy. A Mozzie or two were successfully dispatched and that was about it as far as pests go. Great weather, great hike - have fun!