With a friend I went on my second hike this year. This time it was about 20 miles from Steven's Pass in the Cascade Mountains. We hiked up from a US Forest Service road up to Lake Dorothy, which is one of a number of alpine lakes in the region.
This hike his hilly. The first half of it is a winding uphill path that goes through a rain forest. There was moss everywhere but not as much ferns as on the last hike. As we went up, we passed a raging river--apparently so because of the massive snowfall this past winter--and a couple of waterfalls. In fact, a portion of the forest road about 2 miles from the parking area was flooded but my friend's X-C Volvo had no problem going through it. The flow of the water gushing across the road was not a trifle and I thought the car might get swept off, but we got through with no problem.
Back to the hike: the trail is very well kept and there are many wooden steps going uphill because of all the moisture. Those steps were causing my friend a serious knee pain, but she toughed it out and we made it up to the lake in about and hour and a half. Dorothy Lake is the source of the river--on the way up we got water from the numerous streams that we criss-crossed. The alpine description of the lake lives up to its features -- there are pine trees and snow-covered mountains surrounding the lake.
Our guide for the hike was the same book we used last time: Hiking Washington. We could have gone back down after seeing the lake, which would have made it a 3-mile round-trip but we were in good shape and I wanted to reach the end of the lake, which was another 1.5 miles out. We kept going uphill for another 15 minutes or so and we reached the high point of the hike--about 3350 feet in elevation--from which we had a gorgeous panoramic view of the lake. The hike then was slightly downhill and then leveled out.
The further we got, the more precarious the trail became in the form of snow. We actually thought about turning back at some of those moments because the snow cover was a few feet high and had round crevasces in places. I was afraid we might brake our legs if we fell in (it wasn't high enough to disappear!). My weakness was complimented by my friend's strength and vice-versa so that we never turned back, which I think we thought about 4 times in total.
At the rear-end of the lake the path and surrounding area was completely covered in packed snow. We could hear flowing water and after a final turn we made it to the bridge under which there was a fast-flowing river that was feeding the lake. So, the source of Lake Dorothy is Bear Lake which lies slightly higher about 1/2 mile up from where we were. We stopped on the bridge, and ate and drank.
We left the parking lot at almost 3pm. It took us 2:37 to make it to the bridge. I thought that lightness might be only be a slight problem even though it was 5:45pm when we started to head back--it doesn't get dark until 9, although it would be darker amidst the forest, and the way down would be much quicker. Indeed, we made it back at 7:50pm--it took us 2 hours and 6 minutes.
It was Monday when we went so we didn't expect much traffic, and only encountered one group of 3 people and a dog (not allowed on the trail). The recommended time for this hike is late June through October; most of the other Cascade Mountains hikes in the book are best traversed from mid-July through early October because they're at much higher elevations. Seeing all the snow, I don't think we'll attempt to hike them until the recommended time!
BTW, there are plenty of backbacking opportunies along this route. I'm not sure if I'd camp on this lake for more than a day because the vista is beautiful but at the same time closed-in by the surrounding mountains. Perhaps the views are more "open" higher up. Maybe I'll find out later in the summer.
Total: 6.57mi Hike (Lake Dorothy, Cascasde Mountains)
P.S. I figured out a way to make the Forerunner work much better in forested areas: I put in on the shoulder pad of my backpack. I rarely got a weak GPS signal.
P.P.S. I think I might have reached my 300MB image size limit and so I can't post any pictures. Not sure what to do right now...
[Backdated on 06/09/2006]
This hike his hilly. The first half of it is a winding uphill path that goes through a rain forest. There was moss everywhere but not as much ferns as on the last hike. As we went up, we passed a raging river--apparently so because of the massive snowfall this past winter--and a couple of waterfalls. In fact, a portion of the forest road about 2 miles from the parking area was flooded but my friend's X-C Volvo had no problem going through it. The flow of the water gushing across the road was not a trifle and I thought the car might get swept off, but we got through with no problem.
Back to the hike: the trail is very well kept and there are many wooden steps going uphill because of all the moisture. Those steps were causing my friend a serious knee pain, but she toughed it out and we made it up to the lake in about and hour and a half. Dorothy Lake is the source of the river--on the way up we got water from the numerous streams that we criss-crossed. The alpine description of the lake lives up to its features -- there are pine trees and snow-covered mountains surrounding the lake.
Our guide for the hike was the same book we used last time: Hiking Washington. We could have gone back down after seeing the lake, which would have made it a 3-mile round-trip but we were in good shape and I wanted to reach the end of the lake, which was another 1.5 miles out. We kept going uphill for another 15 minutes or so and we reached the high point of the hike--about 3350 feet in elevation--from which we had a gorgeous panoramic view of the lake. The hike then was slightly downhill and then leveled out.
The further we got, the more precarious the trail became in the form of snow. We actually thought about turning back at some of those moments because the snow cover was a few feet high and had round crevasces in places. I was afraid we might brake our legs if we fell in (it wasn't high enough to disappear!). My weakness was complimented by my friend's strength and vice-versa so that we never turned back, which I think we thought about 4 times in total.
At the rear-end of the lake the path and surrounding area was completely covered in packed snow. We could hear flowing water and after a final turn we made it to the bridge under which there was a fast-flowing river that was feeding the lake. So, the source of Lake Dorothy is Bear Lake which lies slightly higher about 1/2 mile up from where we were. We stopped on the bridge, and ate and drank.
We left the parking lot at almost 3pm. It took us 2:37 to make it to the bridge. I thought that lightness might be only be a slight problem even though it was 5:45pm when we started to head back--it doesn't get dark until 9, although it would be darker amidst the forest, and the way down would be much quicker. Indeed, we made it back at 7:50pm--it took us 2 hours and 6 minutes.
It was Monday when we went so we didn't expect much traffic, and only encountered one group of 3 people and a dog (not allowed on the trail). The recommended time for this hike is late June through October; most of the other Cascade Mountains hikes in the book are best traversed from mid-July through early October because they're at much higher elevations. Seeing all the snow, I don't think we'll attempt to hike them until the recommended time!
BTW, there are plenty of backbacking opportunies along this route. I'm not sure if I'd camp on this lake for more than a day because the vista is beautiful but at the same time closed-in by the surrounding mountains. Perhaps the views are more "open" higher up. Maybe I'll find out later in the summer.
Total: 6.57mi Hike (Lake Dorothy, Cascasde Mountains)
P.S. I figured out a way to make the Forerunner work much better in forested areas: I put in on the shoulder pad of my backpack. I rarely got a weak GPS signal.
P.P.S. I think I might have reached my 300MB image size limit and so I can't post any pictures. Not sure what to do right now...
[Backdated on 06/09/2006]
posted by Severe Training at 2:36 PM
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