Lost Lake, Echo Lake, George Lake Loop

I spent the weekend exploring an area entirely new to me--the Norse Peak Wilderness. I had never heard of it until about 2 weeks ago. It's a 50,923 acre piece of land north of Chinook Pass. After hearing some trip reports of a nice snow free loop. I decided to give it a try. The entire loop is about 23 miles and offers lakeside camping each night.

The trail starts at the popular Greenwaters lakes trail head. It is a flat yet scenic 2 mile walk to the pair of Greenwater lakes. This portion of the trail was busy. Think flip flop clad day hikers, but was a nice area none the less. The lakes are green and marshy, but nicer than a lot of lower elevation lakes in the area and have some good camp sites. Not long after passing the lakes the trail splits with the left fork heading to Echo Lake and the right to Lost Lake. Here we bared right and left most hikers behind.

Greenwater Lake

The trail continues through the forest for about 2 miles to Quinn Lake a small turquoise lake tucked a bit off trail. We stopped here for a brief break enjoying the quiet tranquil waters. Then it was back into the forest to continue our climb up to Lost Lake. Lost Lake is about 5 miles from the trail head and about 1400 ft in elevation. It is a large tree lined lake with some grassy camp sites. There were several groups camped around the lake and it was still early so we decided to refill our water and begin the 3 mile, 15oo ft climb up to George Lake.

Quinn Lake

Lost Lake

Once up on the ridge we were treated to some nice views to the north and our first glance of Noble Knob a large rock outcrop. The trail continues just past the knob where an obvious side trail on the right takes you up to the pass. From there we dropped down to the kidney shaped George Lake to set up camp for the night. The lake is relatively shallow which made it warm enough for a quick swim before heading to bed. We had the lake entirely to ourselves and had a sweet campsite overlooking the lake. That night as the temperature began to drop the lake became shrouded in a thin mist. Then we noticed that the logs that had been on the shore earlier were now floating in the middle of the lake. It was a little eerie. There was no wind, but the logs were definitely moving slowly across the lake. We assume the difference in air and water temperature was making a slight current. Crazy stuff.

View from the ridge

Descending into George Lake

Our campsite on the cliff

Noble Knob Reflection

Noble Knob Reflection 2

The next morning we woke to strong winds and cold temperatures and began to worry that a storm might roll in. Our previous blue bird sky day was gone and the clouds were here to stay. We were slow to pack up waiting for the wind to die down and keeping an eye on the sky. Eventually the wind calmed and we headed up onto the ridge. From the ridge I made the easy scramble up to Noble Knob for a cloudy view of the area. This section of the trail is known for its splendid views of Rainier up along the ridge, unfortunately, all we saw was a wall of clouds in the direction of Big R. As we continued along we ran into several unexpected trail junctions and a group of confused fishermen asking us if there were any lakes up here. The area was a little confusing with the many side trails, but we were able to mostly stay on course.

Trail up to the cloudy Noble Knob

Lost Lake through the clouds

A few hours later we arrived at Corral Pass for a late lunch and a few views of peaks breaking through the clouds. Here the trail dumps you out at a trail head and parking area which was a bit of a surprise. Luckily, it's only about 100 yards along the road until you are back on the trail descending to Echo Lake. On the drop down we encountered another group of hikers near the turn off for the small unexciting Hidden Lake. They warned us of the man eating mosquitoes that they had narrowly escaped from and told us to be prepared with lots of deet. We took the warning with a grain of salt, bugs have never been much of a bother to us. Little did we know...

Lupine on Corral Pass

Not long after hearing this warning we began to experience the mosquitoes for ourselves. Not too bad at first, just annoying buzzing around our face while we walked. I was wearing pants and long sleeves so I figured I was mostly safe. Then we stopped for a quick water break and the swarm came. Within seconds of stopping we were being bombarded from all sides by giant clouds of buzzing pests. We agreed to avoid any unnecessary stops and ford onto Echo Lake. Eventually we arrived along the marshy shores of the lake, found a nice spot and set down our packs. Again, within seconds the swarm attacked biting through my layers of clothing. I downed a hat for additional protection, but it was no use, hundreds of blood suckers descended upon me. Without too much thought the decision was made to carry on and look for a campsite along the river.

Echo Lake

Luckily, about a mile past the lake the swarms subsided and we were able to camp at peace at a small site along the river about a mile before the junction. The next morning was a quick jaunt back to the car and the discovery of a flat front tire. A quick change and before we knew it we were in Enumclaw enjoying a tasty breakfast and then back in Seattle.

The route

Copper Glance Lake

Sarah and I headed to the Methow Valley for the weekend to stay at a friends cabin. We woke up Saturday to a bluebird sky and 80 degree weather and decided to head up to Copper Glance Lake--a hike that had been recommended to me by some NWhikers. After a scenic 30 minute drive we arrived at the trailhead.

The hike starts off along an old road that heads up to an abandoned mine. Early into the hike you come upon Copper Glance creek. The original bridge has collapsed, but the boards still remain and we were able to cross without a problem. The road section of the trail was a bit grueling as it climbs about 1000 ft up to the old mine. Luckily the flowers along the trail were coming to life giving us a distraction from the constant climbing. The mine was pretty interesting although we decided not to explore into the tunnel.

Tiger Lilly

The mine

At this point the road turns into an actual trail and makes a hair pin turn to the south. The climbing doesn't stop, in fact, the trail immediately after the mine was probably the steepest of the hike. Have no fear, the monotony of climbing up dusty trails is soon ended by a view of Isabella Ridge peaking over a grassy knoll. At this point it seams as if the lake should be directly in front of you, but the trail cuts to the right and continues to climb. From here on out, we no longer minded the climbing because the beauty of the open meadows filled with flowers quickly made us forget the burning in our lungs and legs. The hike became spectacular from this point onward. The flowers, the blue sky, the craggy ridge; we really couldn't have asked for more...and we hadn't even made it to the lake yet.

The first glimpse of the Isabella Ridge

Lupine, Asters, Forget-me-nots and much more

After crossing the meadows we came upon a small pond, then veered left and headed up a brief but steep gravelly slope. Soon after this you hit the highest point on the trail (again more splendid views) and then begin to drop slightly down to the lake. The lake was fantastic. The water was so clear--clearer than most lakes I've been to. The shores are rocky, but we saw a few dirt spots where you could set up a tent. The lake is also surrounded by larch which I'm sure make this a beautiful fall destination. We sat and soaked up the sun for about an hour. We watched a lot of what looked like trout swimming just below the surface. It was a pretty amazing place. On the way back we decided to scramble up another 50 ft from the trails highest point to a couple of big boulders for a 360 view of the area which I'd highly recommend.

The pond just below the lake

Copper Glance Lake

360 view above the lake

The whole time we were out, we only passed one couple on their way down from the lake. The hike is about 6.3 miles round trip and gains about 2700 ft in elevation. To get to the trailhead from Windthrop take the Westside Chewuch Rd to the eightmile creek road and continue on this until you see the trailhead on the right.

Waptus Lake/Polallie Ridge Loop...almost

Fourth of July brought a sunny three day weekend for the SSDL gang and a hike of great adventure. We had been struggling to come up with any good hikes this summer because of the crazy amounts of snow that is still lingering in the mountain. After hearing trip reports of a snow free hike to Waptus lake we decided to piece together a little Alpine Lakes Adventure of our own.

The original plan was to hike in Saturday to Waptus Lake (8 miles) and camp for the night. Then depending on what the conditions were like we would either just day hike around the area on Sunday or hike the Polallie Ridge trail to Diamond Lake. We also kept open the option to hike over Waptus Pass and return via Pete Lake. So Saturday arrived and we set off into the unknown.

The hike started off nicely. It was a beautiful blue sky day and the crew was feeling good. The trail starts by climbing slightly up the low divide from Salmon la Sac. This area has been burned and is very open which allowed for some good looks up to the surrounding ridges. The snow level was actually looking pretty good and we continued on hopeful to make a loop. The hike to the lake appears mostly flat although over the 8 miles you do climb about 1000ft. We had lunch at a scenic site along one of the first creeks. The creek crossing were all a bit on the exciting side. The water was moving quickly and you often had to navigate over rocks and logs. With our poles and a little acrobatics we were able to keep our feet dry.

View along the river

On the way in we had nice view of cone mountain which looked completely free of snow. We were continually glancing up at Polallie ridge to our left trying to get a handle on the snow level and feeling hopeful. We briefly considered going up trail creek and making a loop to the east, however when we saw where we would have to ford the Waptus River to get there we quickly changed our minds. The Waptus river was running high and unfortunately the bridge to cross to the east side of the river just below the lake was out. Hikers were being rerouted to the horse ford crossing which was doable, but fairly deep. When we got to the junction we decided to skip the crossing and instead set up camp on the south side of the lake. We had only passed a few people on our way in, but heard from another hiker that the north side was quickly becoming crowded.

Waptus Lake from the south shore

At about 4:00 we made our way to quick creek and looked for a place to set up camp. Quick creek was a wide flooded mess by time it reached the lake and unfortunately the only 3 sites near the water were all occupied. We settled on a large site before the creek set back in the woods a bit. We got set up made a fire and enjoyed a delicious taco and s'mores dinner. The area around our campsite still had some large snow patches, but we had plenty of bare ground to hang out on. A little before sunset, Sarah and I went for a walk and managed to find an area where the shoreline protruded into the lake far enough for us to have some splendid views of Summit King and Bear's Breast mountain over the lake.

Summit Chief and Bear's Breast behind Waptus Lake

In the morning we decided to go ahead and attempt a loop and head towards Waptus Pass. We packed up camp and headed out with an open mind and a handful of backup plans. We took the quick creek trail that was just a bit before our campsite and quickly began to climb the switchbacks. We made quick progress and began to reach some open spots with nice views of the lake and the falls along the creek. We stopped for an extended snack break about 2 miles into the hike where the climb eases and there is a nice view point. During the next mile we began to hit patchy snow which got continually thicker until the junction with the Polallie Ridge trail. Despite the snow, we had no problem finding the trail to this point. We ran into a nice couple who were headed over the pass and down to Pete Lake, but they were the only people we saw for most of the day. At the junction we saw a random bench and a slightly wet, yet snow free campsite. Here the trail climbs for another 1.5 mile to a junction with the Tired Creek trail at a crest.

Climbing up Quick Creek Trail

Looking down at Waptus Lake

Waterfall along Quick Creek

And the snow begins

Melted out campsite near the junction

Above this point was continuous snow and the trail was not visible. According to our map we needed to cross one of the small creeks and continue up until the high point. It looked very straight forward basically as long as we stayed between the two creeks and climbed we should hit the junction. We were going to check out what the snow was like actually on the ridge and then decide to either forge on to Diamond Lake or drop down Tired Creek to camp at lower elevations. So up we went.

View after the climb up from the junction

After a while we made it to what appeared to be the top. There was still a decent amount of snow and although we could see patches of bare ground we saw nothing that resembled a trail. We knew their was an old lookout near the junction, but nothing of the sorts could be found. After more map reading and debate we decided that we might have cut our angle a little too far west. We were right (we were near the 5001 ft mark on the green trails map). Unfortunately we didn't realize just quite how right we were. In order to correct our mistake we decided to drop down a bit to climb back up the rise just slightly to the west. After more snow climbing we made it to the crest and were greeted by breath taking views. We could now see north to a whole panorama of peaks. It was absolutely beautiful. There was bar rock at the crest in patches and lingering snow as well. The only thing that threw us for a loop was the large ridge that we were now looking at to the east. Thinking we were standing on Polallie Ridge, we just couldn't figure out quite what we were looking at. We were staring at the main section of Polallie Ridge and standing very near a snow covered trail 1317 on a little side ridge. Feeling tired from all our climbing and a bit frustrated we decided to drop down into the bowl and traverse to the south to see if we could get a better feel for our exact location.

Panorama of the view

Only a few clouds

Sure enough after about 30 minutes I stepped unknowingly right onto the trail. A little confused, it was back to the map and we made the realization that we were on the Tired Creek trail and staring up at Polallie now quite a bit above us. At last we decided to claim defeat on the Polallie attempt and head down to find a drier, warmer camp spot. The trudge down the Tired Creek trail soon became snow free and dusty and was a bit of a knee buster in spots. After a while we reached the Cooper River trail and began the hike to Cooper Lake. Not long after we passed the parking area for Pete Lake and left the solitude we had been enjoying all day. We found a nice spot to camp on the north end of Cooper Lake and rest after our ~11 mile snow adventure day.

Headed down Tired Creek Trail

Our Route

On Monday after a lazy morning we hiked a tedious 5 miles back to our car along the Cooper River Trail passing several horses and flip flop clad families who all gave us and our packs very quizzical looks. One person even stopped to ask us if we were training for something. We just smiled and said "nope we do this for fun". At about 2:00 we returned to our car and headed to Roslyn for some well deserved and very delicious burgers and beer. All in all it was a great 4th of July weekend. In total: about 25 miles, lots of snow (probably 8ft at the deepest), and about 3,000ft elevation from trailhead to high point (much more if you count all our ups and downs).