Lake 22 4-27-19

AppleWatch Stats:  5.87 miles RT (did not circumnavigate the lake), 1458 ft of elevation gain.

After being turned away by avalanches a few weeks ago, I decided to tackle the hike to Lake 22 again this weekend.  Not too long or steep for Cedar and Luna, and a little bit of elevation gain for me.  It looked like it was supposed to rain in the morning, but I didn't want to deal with the hordes of humanity that come later on, so I left early.

What a world of difference it was to see the trail completely snowless right up until the last 1/4 of a mile or so.  It was cloudy, but not raining, so I was doing great.  Also I was only the 5th car in the lot, so I knew the trail would be peaceful for the most part.

In addition to skunk cabbage blooms, there were trillium blooming

I stepped off the trail a bit to get to this gorgeous loud falls that was thundering down in a froth of white.  All of the waterways were more robust with all that melting snow.

About halfway up the sky got darker and darker and then broke open with tiny round balls of stinging hail!  Some people call this sleet I guess.  I threw my raincoat on, and had to keep brushing it out of Luna's wool.  Things fall right off Cedar, but everything that touches Luna sticks to her.  I tried to find a root ball or tree that would shelter us a bit, but didn't find anything in that section of trail.

By the time we got to the switchbacks across the slide area, the hail had stopped and just the occasional large snowflake was swirling down here and there like white feathers.  Again, it was amazing to look out over the valley, and look at the rocky slope and see how different it was from the treacherous snowfield I had been on so recently, punctuated with the rumbling of little avalanches.  So much nicer to cross it feeling safer, although I'll take the snow over the rocks as far as footing!

I let the dogs offleash to navigate a couple fallen trees and they ran ahead - they really blend in here!

Looking out over the valley

When we got to the lake, it was all misty and snowy and beautiful.  I only saw the three guys that I kept glimpsing ahead of us during the hike, and after they posed for some photos, they went around the lake.  I sat down with the pups and put Luna's jacket on.  The snow was picking up again and the wind was starting to blow.  I gave them some pieces of steak from dinner the night before and started on my trailmix when the snow REALLY started coming down! It was mixed with more sleet and it was blowing into my face and stinging.  I bundled up too and decided to cut our visit short.

Me at Lake 22 (it is falling snow by my nostril - not an icicle lol)

Luna begging me to hurry with her coat

Cedar begging for another piece of steak

Back down the hill!  Once we got into the shelter of the trees it was a little warmer, but the snow continued, sticking a bit to the evergreens.

In the open area you could no longer see across the valley, but as I went down toward the last switchback I could see the sun was starting to burn through.  A lot of people (a LOT!!!!) were coming up the trail now and I chatted with the first few.  We were all laughing about how we'd expected rain but ended up with snow and we were glad we were all prepared.

I couldn't stop for long.  Luna is sponge and now she shivered every time we stopped moving.  I was fine with hustling, so we hurried down into the lower forest.  There the sun did shine through and lit up every new leaf and curled fiddlehead.  It was gorgeous.

It ended up being a bit more of an adventure than I had expected, but I was glad it wasn't rain!