Bridal Veil Falls - Lake Serene

Today's hike was the most intense I've been on yet!  It was a real push physically, and also mentally!  Also the different temperatures we hiked through and the constant rain which soaked through my rainproof coat added to the challenge. I was hiking with Adventure Dog, as usual, and my hiking buddy Dan also joined us with his flat-coated retriever, Clark Kent.

The Bridal Veil Falls-Lake Serene hike is off of Hwy 2, about 7 miles past Gold Bar.  With the falls overlook and the trek to the lake all totaled, it’s 7.2 miles round trip, according to the WTA website.  The first mile is just up an old logging road and although everything was wet, it was lovely.  Bleeding hearts and yellow violets lined both sides of the road.  Devil’s clubs unfurled their wicked spiked leaves, and maples were just leafing out as well.

At about 1.1 mi, there is a fork.  Left is 2 miles to Serene Lake, and right is 1/2 a mile to the Bridal Veil Falls overlook.  We decided to get the hard part out of the way 1st and went left.  The first part of it was pretty nice... kind of level, gorgeous big trees, mossy dark forest... then we came out at the foot of the falls!  It was totally mind-blowing.  It wasn’t the largest falls I have seen, but they were really amazing... billows of mist thundered off it, and you could look up and up and just see cascade after cascade churning and frothing down the broken rock face.  Part of the soul-wrenching impact these falls had, may have come from the fact that you could get right up close and personal with them.  Clark loved it and waded around in a pool at the bottom trying to fish sticks out of the water.  Cedar did not want to get up close and personal with the waterfall. The stream was too deep for him to cross there too, so I carried him.

After that, we hit switchbacks and wooden staircases... up and up and up until my thighs cried out for mercy.  I was happy to be getting such a good workout, but also wishing it wasn't quite so good.  Soon I noticed that plants that were leafed out and blooming below were just budding out at our elevation.  Then there was the snow. The last 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile was all snow.  It was deep, and simultaneously slushy and hard-packed. In some places you could see it was at least 4 feet deep.  Holes had melted down through it and water ran all underneath, gushing out in spouts to join others and eventually become the falls below.  There were two sections of snow field and I have to admit, they made me pretty nervous.  It was important to make sure my footing was solid.  Post-holing a foot through could mean a sprain or broken ankle…sliding downhill meant serious injury or 'hasta la vista.'  It was also obviously an area that has seen avalanches.  I kept peering up into the mist and fog suspiciously. 

Adventure Dog squinted up the hill too, but he couldn’t have been too scared.  He and Clark raced around like crazy, rolling and chasing each other and running circles in the snow, play-snarling and acting like it was just a snowy day in the city.  It was pretty funny.

After getting through that, which was taxing in every way, we got to the lake.  Lake Serene was an icy snow-covered beauty, slumbering below the hidden foggy peaks.  As we neared it and stopped for lunch, it was like stepping into a deep freeze.  The moment we stopped moving our drenched clothes became obvious and even though none of mine were cotton I was in a hurry to eat and leave despite the arctic beauty there. 

We didn't hear or see any avalanches around the lake, but could see the dirty snow where they had been coming down. 

I went to cross a little bridge for some pictures, and as I stepped down toward the bridge and my feet went out from under me.  I slid and dug the trekking poles in (which I had borrowed from my Mom) and hung on, but one of them just bent into a 90 degree angle and I just kept sliding right out onto the bridge.  I didn't slide off the bridge though, so that's good.  I wouldn't have been hurt, but would have fallen in water which would have been fairly disastrous.  I tried to bend the pole back and it just snapped in half. 

Lunch was a speedy repast.  I put my fleece back on, gloves and a dry coat on Cedar to keep his body heat in, even though he was soaked through.  Then we went back across the snow and down the hill which seemed to last forever and then did the extra 1/2 mile (each way) to the falls overlook. I didn't think it was as spectacular as being at the base of them, and we had to go up many many stairs and switch backs in that 1/2 mile, plus cross and re-cross a stream that Cedar needed carried over. 

It was soooo nice to finish that hike, but we were really happy we went on it.  It was exhilerating, life-affirming, exciting, scary, and absolutely beautiful.