(all pictures are low res, for high res click here)
For the first Washington hike this
year , I decided on a short trip up to
Lake 22.
As
you can see
this area was set aside for
research purposes in 1947, cool, eh? On the trip this week is my girlfriend
Ellen and her friend
Caiti. Luckily, the
snow level was at 3,000 ft., so the majority of this trip would be without snow.
Less gear needed! Speaking of gear, I just bought a new type of shell jacket
that I was itchin' to try out. It is a
soft shell
that is made out of
Schoeller
fabric -- woo hoo, this
jacket worked
awesomely in the rain -- so I ended up buying
pants and
gloves to match.
Ok, enough with the gear geek stuff
- the weather took its tool on this part of the cascades, as was evident by this
view of a boulder taking out a foot bridge.
When I was hiking along this trail it felt like I was walking back in time, as
the old growth trees
were still standing.
The old growth put me in an
Ansel Adams mood, and the pictures
reflected that.
Moving upward, we came to a
clearing
followed by a series of moss
covered trees and rocks, mixed amongst fallen leaves.
As
we neared the lake, we followed the creek thru some snow
until we finally reached our destination.
As you can see, this lake is
very similar to
Heather Lake,
and in fact it is only a mile or so away from it. We sat down, grabbed some
lunch 
and headed back down the mountain in a fairly strong rainfall.
All in all, this was a fun first hike of the year. I'd recommend it to anyone.
