Yesterday was Labor Day, so we had a long weekend. We took advantage and decided to tackle Lake Mary in the Alpine Lakes region for the second time this year. We tried doing the same hike over the July 4th weekend, but when we got to the base, the weather was awful, so we kept driving further East. Anyway, the weather this weekend looked promising, with 0% chances of precipitation and so off we went.
It was a challenging hike - up, up, up, up, up - but the views were beautiful. The colors have just started to turn and the sun was warm and pleasant. The first day we only saw two other parties on the trail. One of the couples gave us a tip for where we could pitch the tent and that was really helpful because it was pretty much the only flat spot along the trail. We set up camp just before it got dark and since burn bans were in effect, we had a quick dinner and went to bed by 8:30pm!
The night surprised us with a massive shower (never trust the weather forecast in the mountain!), which cooled everything down substantially. Colin was the braver of us two and mustered the courage to get up in the morning, prepare some oatmeal and get me my cup of jo (Thank you Starbucks for bringing the Via luxury to backpacking!!), while Tiger and I tried to stay warm in the tent.
After breakfast, we packed everything and continued the climb. Unfortunately, it was not only raining but because the trail was so overgrown, we were constantly fighting with wet branches and bushes and a couple of hours later we were soaked head to toe. As we gained altitude, the weather not only didn't clear, but it quickly got very cold and by the ~6000 ft level, the rain turned into snow, the visibility dropped and continuing up sounded less and less appealing. We ultimately decided that we weren't equipped to camp in the snow, especially after having everything - including our sleeping bags - completely wet. So we turned around just short of reaching the ridge. Lake Mary, we'll try again next year!
Several hours later, as we started approaching the trail head, we ran into a few day hikers who couldn't believe we'd made it all the way up, just to turn around...but could believe even less that we had been snowed on earlier that day!
Here are a few shots...
Tiger feeling sorry for himself in the cold & wet tent:
Colin resting at the end of the trip:
People in WA are so weird! At the bottom of the trail, we came across a Mom and daughter who were walking their goats on leashes!
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