Heather Lake — Friday, May. 19, 2006

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

On Saturday, May 20th, six of us headed through Granite Falls toward Verlot for an early season hike to Heather Lake on the flanks of Mt. Pilchuck. After several hot days in a row, this day gave us drizzle and gray skies, but that did not dampen our spirits! We donned rain gear and started up through the misty trees. The trail is only about 1.9 miles (almost 4, round trip), and we made steady progress up the hill, with Joanie our flower guide. There were trilliums, yellow violets, and wild ginger in bloom. Other flowers were in bloom here and there, too, but I do not remember their names. There were huge, old growth stumps at first, but we found some impressive giant living trees as well on the way up. The reported blow downs must have been cleared, as I don't remember anything hard to get over or around. Snow patches started shortly before the lake, but we found some bare rocks and roots at the shoreline to sit on for our lunch stop. Many waterfalls cascaded off the far rock walls as we sat there enjoying the lake. The snowmelt is in rapid progress.