Surprise! Lake

November 17-18, 2012

Our first hike/camp in the snow ever and boy, was it snowy. The trailhead would have been difficult to find were it not for the little blurb from WTA's site. First mile or so was snow free with very well maintained stairs and bridges. We had some knock-off yaktrax called "snow trax" from Costco, but these were pieces of crap. Came off every few steps. Would definitely recommend bringing your trekking poles and some micro spikes. The trail was covered with snow about 2 miles in, but we were able to find our way until we got to the talus field just before the lake. We thought we missed PCT and Surprise Lake junction so we backtracked. That didn't look quite right either so we turned back around. By now it had taken us nearly 4 hours to hike 4 miles (!) and we were starving and starting to get cold. Turned out we just needed to go a little farther because Andy spotted a cut blowdown (evidence of trail maintenance). Found the junction and were on our merry way to Surprise Lake. It was beautiful and half frozen. We had the whole lake to ourselves. Set up camp right by the lake and stomped the snow down to make a spot for our tent. The hike up really tired us out so after eating, we crawled in the tent and slept. And slept. For 15 hours! Hah. We'll make it to Glacier Lake next time. Night time temps reached 27 degrees F and it was snowing/freezing rain the entire night.
The only people we saw was on our way down about 10 minutes from the trailhead. Hopefully they were able to follow our tracks.

You can see the old bridge in the water to the left of Andy

Snowing

Footbridge just before reaching the lake. We had to push the snow off in order to cross.

Unfrozen pond just before the reaching the lake

Signage

Frozen Surprise Lake

Partially frozen Surprise Lake

Campsite

Took most of the scenic pictures on our hike out. The talus fields looked so cool with snow on them - like whipped cream topped food. Yeah, we were hungry.

More talus fields.

Couple shot. Love the flexible tripod Andy made (like the Gorillapods). I'll ask him to write a DIY post on that some time.

Goat Lake

November 3 - 4, 2012

Elevation Gain: 1400'
Highest Point: 3161'
Length: 10.4 miles roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy

We were expecting low temps and were excited to put our cold gear to the test - down jackets and sleeping bag. The forecast changed a couple days before the trip and instead of the 30s, changed to the low 40's and not cold enough for us. Oh well. It sure did rain a lot. Like downpour. Good thing Andy was prepared - he made a tarp shelter out of 2 mil plastic, duct tape, and grommets. Andy's parents came with us, too, but just for the day. They have been here before and I can see why - lots of waterfalls all around us. We took the Upper Elliott trail to Goat Lake.

The trail was mostly flat, wide, and well maintained. It was foggy in many areas and reminded Andy of the movie The Ring..

Since Andy and I were the only people here we had our pick of campsites. We chose the one overlooking the lake.

Goat Lake

Andy is collecting some water to filter.

Backtracked to a nearby roaring waterfall.

We stayed under the tarp during the afternoon before retreating to the tent at around 5pm. It poured rain all day and through the entire night. It was loud but cool, too, plus we got to see how our tent held up in a downpour (good, but seams leaked some rain so will need to seal that up).