Snow Lake to Gem Lake

Snow Lake in summer.

This is the prettiest trek I've done in the PNW thus far. With that said, it's also the most populated as well. If you want to get this trek in, I suggest going in late July to early August for the views, and mid-week to escape the crowds and be near the lake.
We planned a weekend trip with a day hike to Wildcat Lake. It was beautiful, but with a lot of people. The best camp spots were taken on Thursday. Many campers left Sunday morning. I suggest a Sunday to Wednesday if you want as little people as possible. In addition to the large amount of people, the park rangers are pretty active here. If you're planning to bring your dog on this trek, be prepared to have them on a leash the entire time or risk getting fined. I took my chances and let Ruby run free for the most part. I also had a few close calls. A good note about being fined, the money goes back to the parks for upkeep, so you can feel good about paying way too much money for letting your dogs run free.

This hike starts off from the Alpental Ski Resort parking lot. With a quick stop at the bathroom and pictures in front of the booth while mapping our trip out. We decide that we'll hike up to Gem Lake, set up camp, and after lunch, day hike to Wildcat Lake.


The trail starts off with a quick stair climb that gets your heart pumping right away, leaving you thinking, if this is how the hike is starting off, then this is going to be a hard hike! But don't worry, the stairs levels out and you get to relax a good portion of this hike while taking in the views up to Snow Lake. The switchbacks up to the lake are a lung breaker, but they don't last long. There is a perfect photo opportunity vista just before the trail puts you on the ridge of Snow Lake. We stopped for a quick break and some water before making our way up the ridge and onto large rocks that overlook a small section of Snow Lake.

Vista view from Snow Lake back toward the parking lot.

 I've been to Snow Lake several times since moving to the PNW. In fact, I go a few times a year. But for the most part I go in the beginning of the season when the trail is soggy with mud from melted snow and the lake is still covered and foggy. I day hike here before the season opener. But for this backpacking stint, I made sure to push it out until late July to August in order to see the area in it's "spring" with a majority of the snow melted and wildflowers abundant. In fact, I only saw two patches of snow the entire weekend. I'd say it was pretty much perfect timing. Make sure to pack deet, this time of year has a lot of stagnant water.

Snow and Gem Lakes are a few of the lakes in the Cascades that are stocked with trout. This is a good trip for that fishing kit you put together. Pack a can of beer, a plastic bag of cornmeal and season salt with pepper mixed together. Should you get lucky and score a trout, after cleaning it, pour your beer over the the fish and drop it in the bag and bread it in the cornmeal mix. Fry over medium heat. Good job on catching dinner, you're BOSS! If you're like me however, and you never catch anything, well, at least you have that nice beer up on that mountain. Cool it off in the lake while you fish and drink with your packed in dinner.
I haven't brought a pole on a hike. I mostly left that up to my fishing buddy, but it did get me to thinking that I need to put a packer pole and kit together for such an occasion. I'll be doing that on future trips.

A hiker has found a diving board at snow lake.

Snow Lake is big, with lots of places around it to relax after a nice hike. Get some fishing in from the banks and even swim. Be careful when swimming, this water is very cold! Get out if you cramp or begin to feel oddly warm inside it, as it's possible that you may be experiencing hypothermia. And don't swim if you didn't bring something to warm up with once getting out of the lake. Snow Lake is a very popular day hike destination for the Seattle area making it loud and very crowded. If you take a hike here even on a weekday day, you won't be alone. There are a few camps for over night stays overlooking the water that run on a first come basis. This would be a great overnight hike for a solo middle of the week trek, but be ready to have to move on as they fill up fast.
This area is so popular in fact, that they have had to allow for natural regrowth in some areas due to human traffic. Those areas are are marked with "Do Not Walk" signs. Stay out of that area and keep your dogs out as well. Allow nature to do it's thing so that many generations to come can enjoy this beautiful place.





The three of us refilled our water and began the long rocky climb up the mountain toward Gem Lake. Moving along the trail, we left behind Snow Lake and much of the crowd. Stopping occasionally for the view and picture opportunities at the vistas along the way.

My friend Dan brought his camping hammock for the trek instead of sleeping cowboy style. His backpack, still was just a day pack! I am super impressed by his lightweight capabilities. He also brought a six pack of beer in his day pack! He's by far the toughest trekker that I've ever hiked with. The man is Boss. Stephen carried a smaller backpack this time around, but with the same amount of stuff. He even brought a french coffee press! These guys blow me away! I have very little stuff I bring, and I'm constantly thinking about how I'm going to make Ruby carry her own food! It's funny. But we are a good team. Super helpful and giving.

Me waiting out the rain.

On the drive to the trail head from Seattle, it rained. None of us brought much for rain equipment because the forecast had predicted a great weather weekend. It looked like the wind was drifting north, so we were hopeful that we'd stay dry, and the storm would pass us altogether.

Ruby, chasing rodents in the rain.

 We were lucky for the most part because the day started off as overcast,  keeping us cool. The sky would occasionally open up and warm us with light before the clouds would settling back in and cool us down again. But we were not able to avoid the rain all together. Dark blue and luminous yellow clouds formed overhead and thunder charged with lightning shot out of them periodically. Soon I found myself tucked under a tree branch waiting for the rain to stop so I could continue hiking on while Ruby cased rodents into their holes regardless of the rain. The rain would fall for a few minutes at a time before moving on, making it easy to move up the mountain toward Gem Lake in between down pours.

Ruby, coming back for me.

Ruby is my shelter dog. We got her from the Tacoma Humane Society this past March after my 13 year old pup, Abbey, passed away from cancer.

I was going to buy another dog, but my wife and I thought it would be good to rescue a dog instead of investing in puppy mills. Ruby is about 5 years old, and is a Jack Russel/Dachshund mix. She is incredibly intelligent and is still learning new tricks each week.
The pads of her feet are soft. It's highly likely that she didn't get much hiking before me, if ever. On this hike her pads developed ulcers making it painful for her to walk. I couldn't figure out what was wrong because her feet were so dirty, But Stephen and Dan figured it out and wrapped her feet in medical tape. She was walking funny at first, but then she ran perfectly normal. Since then, I've been trying to get her pads taken care of by giving her "Tuff Pads" and having her walk on rocks and pavement in addition to playing in the grass during her daily walks. But I'll most likely get her boots to wear for hiking from now on. Regardless of her soft feet, Ruby is a great trail dog. She runs ahead but doesn't get off the trail, and waits for me to catch up to her or comes back for me if I take too long. She fell off the ledge into Gem Lake trying to get to me at one point so I have to be more careful about where I take her or what I challenge her to do in the future. But at least she tried. She has a hard time in the tent because I don't let her on my sleeping bag. She wants to get inside at night as she would our bed. I'm trying to get her used to climbing and sleeping inside my empty backpack at night instead. Other than that, she does pretty good inside the tent. One last fun fact about Ruby, she is part of a fast growing breed of dog that is called a Teddy Roosevelt Terrier. They are Rat/Jack Terriers mixed with Dachshund or Beagle to give them bench legs, making then short stocky dogs with great sent and hearing for hunting. They are quickly becoming very popular in agility games at shows. So, Ruby was abandoned by an idiot, obviously.

Finally after waiting and dodging the rain I caught up to the guys and started setting up my camp with them. They found a great spot just off the water with a good place to chill Dan's beer in a patch of snow and start making lunch.
Dan and I traded hammock time for some Robert Frost Poetry. I'm now thinking I'm going to find and add a light hammock to my backpack, or to Ruby's, for leisure. I still want my tent, but his hammock was sure nice to lay down and relax in after a long 8 mile hike up to Gem Lake. I would defiantly enjoy being able to lay down and read a book until dinner time after a long hike. I pretty much have to have one now. I did manage to find a fallen tree near Dan's hammock that I was able to stretch out on and take a quick nap before going off to explore the area some more. But after having tried out the hammock, nothing will ever compare. So, yes despite the weight, the hammock is something that I have convinced myself I must have on any given trek.
The afternoon couldn't have been more perfect. The rain clouds were gone. Blue skies with a nice cool breeze filled the area. I set off to do some watercolor painting of the lake. I won't show you that painting as the art is a work in progress for sure. But I plan to keep doing it in journal form next season. Maybe after a few more practices, I'll feel one of my sketches will give the area that I am in justice. But for now, I'll just keep trying. After painting, I went back to camp and had a beer with the guys. I found out that Stephen and I had brought the same chili from the Co-Op that we belong to so I decided to try mine out with the Rainier beer that I had brought with me since Dan brought extras that he was sharing.
After lunch and a little more painting we decided to start off on our day hike to Wildcat Lake. Once we got to the Ridge of what looked like Wildcat Lake however, we decided against it, turning around and heading back to camp so the guys could swim. I didn't know it until I got back to camp and looked at the map, that Wildcat was out of view and further down the mountain than I thought. By the time I got back to the camp, the guys were already drying off and talking about climbing a the butte after dinner!
No way was I getting in that water! Plus they were swimming across the lake back to camp. Something I wasn't fit enough to do even if I wanted to get in the water and swim, which I didn't. But it was cool to watch them get in and go at it. And then meet them back at camp once I took a video of them to the halfway point. I have to say I was a little worried for their safety, and hypothermia setting in on them at a point out there where I couldn't reach them, but Stephen is a Dr. so I trusted that he was educated enough to know what he was doing. In the end. I think they made it across the lake in less than 10 minutes anyway.

A snippet of  Stephen and Dan taking on Gem Lake.

Just as I started thinking about how I was going to cook my dinner, the clouds started rolling in with the thunder and lightning. I deiced to get in my tent and wait out the little rain that was about to happen. As it turned out, it did a lot more than a little rain. It dropped a bucket of rain down on us and offered us a good two minutes of hail. This is the first time that my tent has had to stand up to rain, but with a down sleeping bag, it is way I got it. I trusted that it would do it's job. It did, perfectly. One thing I didn't do was make a trench around my tent. Mostly because I didn't expect such a hard rainfall. The water did spill in around me and wet the things outside my tent under the fly but it didn't matter as much. And that only happened because I didn't provide a trench for the water to fall into and flow out of. The tub of my tent was high enough to keep everything dry against the ricochet of the water hitting the ground around me and prevent it from spilling into my tent wetting the contents and my sleeping bag. I am pretty pleased with my tent. It's an REI Half Dome 2. I had looked around for a solo tent over the past summer, but in the end I decided to stick with the Half Dome 2 another season because I didn't like anything else out there. I would like to go lighter. But for now, this tent is a good friend to have.

The view from my tent. Not bad.

After the storm had passed I started on that dinner that I had been planning all afternoon. My "Rainier Chili". Luckily Stephen had extra chili of his own to share because mine had turned out so bad that I couldn't eat it. It had so much acid that it was not even eatable. So don't go try that one folks. Make sure to hydrate your food with water like you're supposed to. If you are into cooking on the trail, and you would like some suggestions for the perfect trail meals, check out "Lipsmakin' Backpackin' trail tested recipes. I have both veggie and meat eating books that I use for trail food, and have liked everything I have taken out of there.

The next day after the guys had hiked to the top of the butte, we packed up our things to head out. It was an amazing overnight trip. I hadn't expected so much in a single day. This is my favorite trek yet. I look forward to exploring more of the area next season, and hopefully make it up to Kathleen Lake over a two day stint. This is an B+ trek even with the crowds. Coming during the week will push Gem Lake to the top of anybody's wish list for sure!

I leave you with an adorable picture of Ruby the dog. She always has the last word.
Until next season! Happy trails!
Also, if you would like to see more pictures of this hike, or any other hike that I've done for that matter, you can go to my flickr account and check them out by coping and pasting this link. Enjoy!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126779869@N02/

Ruby take Gem Lake.