Ira Spring Trail - Mason Lake — Wednesday, May. 30, 2007

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Beth,Tazz and I meet in the parking lot off I-90 around 9 o'clock. I was surprised to see several cars there already. One was a forest service truck and upon walking up the road a ways we saw them drilling a rock to blast. I've passed those rocks for 20 years without a problem but I suppose with all the people hiking now-. If the road up to Talapus is not open this summer Mason will certainly get a lot of foot traffic. It was in the mid 60's when we started and I was glad Tazz wanted a water break at the falls. I could not have hurried if I wanted to and expecting the sun to be out when we got higher I knew that I would be dragging.The trail is in great shape-more work done since I was here last-one or two years ago.The forest service said that VOW will have a work party out on Sat.. I just saw a little brushing and a couple of logs on the side down to the lake that needed attention. Rainier came into view as we got higher and I took advantage of the shade when I could find it. After passing the cut-off to Bandera I was on new trail. I've always gone to Mason on the old trail but I wanted to see where this came into the lake. It was nice and cool as we headed down-more snow patches and the down tree-so I was enjoying this section. Beth said she liked this section too. At the outlet of the lake the water was flowing strong so we looked for the best crossing and decided to cross by the lake edge where we could step on logs after going through three feet of bushes. One hiker had left the lot before us but we had the place to ourselves. Tazz got to cool down with a few swims while we watched. After a bite to eat we headed back. Upon reaching the high spot of the trail we had a great view of Mt.Rainier which we stopped to see. Here the first hiker coming up also stopped to take a pic..From here down there were quite a lot of people comming up. Beth wanted to be back to Seattle by 3:30 and we made the parking lot by 2 o'clock. Lots of time to open the car windows to cool it down before getting in. I think it was 86 degrees by now. A great day in some nice country and a big thank-you for joinning me Beth.