Snow Lake to Gem Lake
- Kristin Jones
- Sep 27, 2020
- 2 min read
Besides summiting big mountains, I have been taking advantage of spending quality time with friends in the Pacific Northwest and getting out for some day hikes and backpacking trips. Through July and August I was able to get to some really beautiful trails and areas.
Early in July, opted to take a Monday off from work in order to get up to Snow Lake in the Alpental area of Snoqualmie Pass with a friend and avoid significant crowds. Surprisingly, the parking lot and trail was still plenty busy due to many people having extra time on their hands due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but fortunately was not overwhelming. As the hike was only about 5 miles round trip to Snow Lake, I scaled back my gear to fairly minimal with just my running pack and no trekking poles.
The hike up and down to the lake was fairly mild with only a little snow left on the trail on the way down. And it's nice taking a trail that isn't all up or all down. We stopped for a lunch snack on one of the big rocks and had beautiful reflections to take photos of.
Tempted to keep going, we learned we could carry on to Gem Lake for a total of 10 miles round trip. Since we still both had enough food and water and had good fitness levels we decided to push on. At first the trail was visible and we got to cross a cool log where a group of guys were doing a polar bear plunge. But as we moved on the snow became more prevalent and we lost the trail, along with a few other hikers. Fortunately, we all found it again and were able to keep pushing forward.
This was my friend's first time in snow and was definitely more tentative, but I just talked her through where not to step due to water running underneath the snow and to kick in on the steeper sections. At one point we were considering turning around as the snow was definitely outside of her comfort zone, but we were encouraged by a couple coming the other way that said we were so close. So we pushed on and successfully made it to the still frozen Gem Lake, which was also a nice to get away from the crowds as well. With fives miles in front of us to get back to the trailhead, we found a solid stick for my friend to use which helped her a lot with heading back in the snow and made good time to get back to the car and Seattle for dinner.
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