eub | Snow Lake and Gem Lake, 10/2

Went to Snow Lake and Gem Lake, out at Snoqualmie Pass (which, contrary to my naive expectations, is a fair few miles further than Snoqualmie). I stopped at REI on the way down, bought foot paraphernalia: inner socks, outer socks, also around-the-house socks, moleskin-type stuff, boot inserts. The salesfellow explained how "when you get home, you take out your old inserts, trace them onto these, and cut them to size", and when I said I was headed out to hike, we got down on the floor, he traced, and I cut. Oh, also I picked up a NW Forest Pass. And an REI membership, what the hell.

Passed Granite Mountain on the way out -- it looks tiny! You can see the topographic features, and all the way up to the lookout tower.

The outhouse (can it be an outhouse when it has no main house to be out relative to?) had a sticker whose gist was "leave the lid down". I like the concept of two stickers, one for the top of the lid, a skunk curled up sleeping peacefully, and one for the underside, a skunk with a mean glint in its eye and with its business end trained on the viewer. And some explanatory text, I could concede.

The sign at the trailhead says 3 mi one-way to Snow Lake, then 2.5 to Gem Lake. The route to Snow Lake runs northwards for a while, then switchbacks up the slope, and down the far side of the ridge to the lake. A good fraction of the climb is exposed to sun from the west. Lots of people today, probably all like me feeling robbed of September summer.

Overheard from people passing the other way: "I never really get to hug her. she's always so busy hugging me."

Great views of the lake as you come down from the ridge. There's a maze of lake-access trails here, which I didn't have time to poke around as much as I'd have liked, since I'd gotten a late start and was hoping to make Gem Lake and back before dark and before I met people for dinner.

The trail on to Gem Lake had fewer people, though it's had even more construction invested than the lower section had. Right now (on weekdays) they're blasting rocks out of the trail, if that gives you an idea. And they're drystone-paving the trail with hunks of rock fitted together. This effort seems so far to have reached a certain point, and past that the trail has some rough spots, scrubby patches that after the interstate-highway level of construction make you wonder where the trail has gone. Speaking of which, the trail has three or so unlabeled forks; what I can say is that if you bear left each time, you get to Gem Lake. There's one good upward stretch, and then another just as you reach the lake.

I made it just at my (twice-revised) turnaround time. Splashed cold lake water on my face. Watched the ripples on the surface and the sunlight on the bottom. A huge complex screaming rush of noise arose, sounding like the end of the world, and a pale blue-gray delta-winged jet overflew the lake basin.

Once you're at Snow Lake, you've got to go on at least a bit towards Gem. Until you reach the first upward stretch, it's not even any more work, and it's a beautiful walk -- around Snow Lake, with slopes of white boulders plunging under the blue water; across the lake's outlet ravine, on a bridge of a large hewn log; through a low-alpine landscape of scattered trees and small plants, in fall colors, and to a miniature lake with the big one in the background, and Chair Peak steep behind it.

Saw lots of boletes, brown-yellow, looking like globs of urethane spray-foam degraded by UV exposure.

Figure 1.5 hrs (1300' gain) to Snow Lake, 1.5 to Gem (800'); 1 (100') back to Snow, 1.25 (400') back to trailhead. Times include photography but do not include appreciating lakes.