Mount Catherine, Cold Creek Loop via Tinkham and Silver Peaks — Saturday, Jul. 5, 2003

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

I almost feel bad dragging my poor father-in-law out since he's not a regular hiker, but it all ended well. We planned on just hiking to Twin Lakes on the Cold Creek trail, but when that took all of about 15 minutes we looked at the map and decided to do the loop around the lake below Tinkham and Silver Peaks. Unfortunately, we went clock-wise which is clearly the wrong way to go if you don't want to trudge up some 34 switchbacks, but once we got to the junction with the PCT at 4,500 feet it was an easy downhill back to the lake. There were some great hidden gems just above the trail along the way. In two cases we indulged in a bit of exploring and found crystal-clear mini-lakes only 20 or so feet above the trail. Unfortunately, they were full of mosquitoes so we didn't linger, but my dog definitely enjoyed a quick swim. I had my four month old daughter with us so we didn't try to go up to Silver Peak, but I, at least, will be back to tackle that later. I think a better approach is from Mirror Lake or where the PCT crosses the road in Olallie Meadows, though. The section of the trail from the lower of Twin Lakes heading up toward Mirror Lake is a bit overgrown with some devil's club poking through. There are a couple of very small snow patches on the trail north of the Mirror Lake junction, but nothing to worry about. The trail from the Mt. Catherine trailhead down to Twin Lakes is a bit muddy as well. Some pictures can be found at http://www.moosefish.com/cgi-bin/package_display.pl?package ID=62