Surprise and Glacier Lakes, Surprise Lake Snowshoe — Monday, Jan. 24, 2005

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

I met up with Rob (Wildernessed at nwhikers.net) at the Surprise lake trail head on RT 2 at 8:30 am, and we hit the trail at 9, with my dog Daisy along as well. There is some snow on the initial road portion of the trail, then the snow disappears when the woods are entered. There are wooden staircases all along the first part of the trail before the wilderness begins. They are in good repair and not too slippery. Lots of big trees, a gushing creek, ferns, moss, and we had sunshine. Once the 2,600 ft elevation level was gained, the snow started in earnest, but it was packed and dense, decent footing. The crossing of the creek was pretty nasty. The log bridge was slippery wood on the sides with slippery ice in the middle. ""W"" decided to straddle the log and shimmy across on his behind, using his hands to lift himself up between shimmies. I would also have done this, but Daisy wouldn't cross the log. So I decided to wade the creek with the dog. I had brought an extra pair of boots in the dog's pack for this very use, so I stripped out of my gaiters, boots and socks, put on the spare boots, and just walked across the creek at a likely spot just upstream from the log. The water was numbingly cold and deeper than it looked. Daisy almost got swept downstream a bit by the strong current, but she fought her way across. I used my flannel shirt to dry my feet and the dog, re-booted, and we were off again, the wet boots left behind for use again on the return. As we continued on and up, the trail grade was gentle, but the snow got deeper and softer. We floundered through the open spots, postholing up to mid-thigh. Then the trail steepens, and starts switchbacking a bit, and the snow just got worse. There were sections where there was no snow as well. I eventually realized that Surprise lake was not on my agenda for the day. It was 1:00, we had been hiking for four hours, had gone 3 1/2 miles through tough conditions, gained 1,850 VF, but we were still a bit over 1/2 mile from the lake, and 700 more VF. Wildernessed continued on while the dog and I made a picnic camp at a nice flat area with a view and no snow at 3,850 ft. He made it to the lake just before 2:00, hung out a bit, and made it back to me and Daisy around 3. We high-tailed it out at full speed for the conditions, the post-holing easier to overcome on the way down. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get back to the vehicles from the picnic spot, without any rest breaks. The wade across the creek was even colder the second time, and the water was higher, too. There was a lot more snow than I had anticipated. We saw depths of 4 feet or more above 3,000 ft. And there is a lot more water in the snow pack than it appears, since the snow is that ultra-dense cascade concrete usually found later in the year. With some colder weather to prevent further melting, and a couple of good snow dumps, we may be able to take showers next summer after all.