Heather Lake — Friday, May. 16, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

We had a Mountaineer hike scheduled for Goat Lake this Saturday in May and the forecast called for cold and rainy weather with snow levels at 3,000'. Our first clue that something unusual was happening with the weather was a profusion of downed limbs and small trees along, and even across, the highway just past Granite Falls. By the time we got to Verlot it was snowing pretty good. There we learned that there was at least 7"" of snow on the road at Barlow Pass. There was another Mountaineer hike group already at the Public Service Center and they decided to shift to Lake 22, so I took our group up to Heather Lake. There was plenty of snow on the road to the trailhead and we went up the trail in a steady snowfall. I have seen far less snow on this trail in mid-winter snowshoe trips than we had today. By the time we got to the lake, there was between one and two feet of snow on the ground. The lake was completely covered with slush. We could hear avalanches coming off of Pilchuck. We met a lot of hikers on the way back, who had similarly been re-routed from their planned hikes. Some had planned on doing Pilchuck, but their low-clearance cars had no chance to get to that trailhead. We met one group of British tourists who were muttering something about the surprising springtime weather we have in the USA. It was a good lesson in being prepared for all kinds of weather, because we certainly see all kinds in our beloved Cascades, at any time of the year.