Snow Lake Girls' Hike

 On Friday, July 26th, we went on a hike to Snow Lake! Jay's knee had been feeling sore all week, and Jeff had been running long fast miles with our cross country team captain, so the boys stayed home while Rose, Amber, and I drove two hours to the Snoqualmie Pass and met up with my sister Mel, sweet baby Dahlia, and Pancha The Fluffy. Mel is nearing the end of her 8 months of maternity leave from work, and we wanted to make the most of it with a hike. Mel's husband Braxton was at work and couldn't join us, so it was a pure girls' hike, all the way down to Pancha the dog, who is also a girl. 

The Snow Lake Trail close to exit 53 off of Interstate 90 in the Snoqualmie Pass is not to be confused with The Snow Lakes (plural) Trail further north in the Enchantments outside of Leavenworth, WA. Mel and I hiked that much longer trail two years ago. The Snow Lake Trail we did this time was 3.3 miles from trailhead to lake. It is one of the most popular trails in the area, and the whole time we were on the trail, we could see why. The scenery was beautiful, with stretches of large shady pine trees and other sections of open mountain vistas. 

With a net elevation gain of 1700 feet over the trail, it was a whole lot of uphill on the way out. We set a sustainable pace and everyone kept up just fine. Mel carried 7 month old Dahlia on her back the entire way! Rose, Amber, and Mel took turns holding Pancha's leash. Amber was in full flow wilderness exploration mode. I love it when she is in that zone--exploring outside has always been my favorite way to spend time with Amber, ever since she learned how to walk. Amber explained it to Mel: "When I was younger my mom had a hard time getting all of my energy out." It was cute to hear Amber's perspective on all of my stories of her early childhood. As we hiked toward the lake, Amber collected three pieces of bark and a handful of mini pinecones so we could make our traditional "bark boats" at the lake.

Rose hiked along, chatting with Mel and me. It was a very companionable hike for all of us.  It was a sunny blue-sky day and the temperature was in the high 60s, climbing into the low 70s by the end of our hike. We couldn't have picked a better time to do this hike! The lake was absolutely stunning, nestled in the mountains with clear blue water rippling quietly in the gentle breeze. We stayed at the lake for close to 45 minutes, eating lunch, watching Amber dip her toes in the lake, and building bark boats. Rose, Amber, and I each built a boat with varying techniques and levels of success. As usual, Rose's boat was the most structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing. Mine was very haphazard with a scaffolding of sticks to hold up my tiny leaf-clad mast. Amber couldn't get her mast to stand up so she arranged a collection of wildflowers, pinecones, and sticks on top and launched it that way. 

Baby Dahlia was a true trail baby, only fussing when she got tired for the last 15 minutes on the way up to the lake. Once she had some applesauce and milk at the lake, she was all dimples and happy squeals again. She slept for more than half of the hike back down to the car. 

All in all, we were out in pristine Cascade Mountains for just under five hours. The actual hike-time was about 3.5 hours roundtrip. When we got back to the car, we still had to drive 2 hours home! The girls chose to eat at Wendy's in Ellensburg on the way home. (They were too hungry to wait till Yakima for superior burgers at Five Guys.) It was a soul-filling, exhausting day. 

I "narrowed it down" to 40 pictures from our hike:

Trailhead picture: all ready to go!

I offered to take turns carrying Dahlia, but also felt glad that Mel was up to the challenge because some of these rocky patches looked pretty gnarly for carrying a baby-laden backpack! Even if the baby plus backpack was barely 20 pounds, I didn't want to risk tripping and falling while carrying my sweet niece!

Amber enjoyed climbing some boulders when we took a break halfway up the trail to feed Dahlia.

The Cascades are my favorite mountains in the world. I like them even more than the Appalachians, which are a close second. Except maybe during late October/early November--at that time of year, the Appalachians win, with all of their gorgeous leaf colors.

Snow Lake, peeking through the trees.

Snow Lake was bigger than I expected!

Amber, in her happy place. Note the bark peeking out the top of her backpack. She found the bark early on the trail and was happy to carry it for two-plus miles, but I put it in her backpack. She started collecting other things for the bark boats in her free hands.

The bear grass (white puffball flowers) looked like some sort of Dr. Seuss drawing, but they were so pretty peeking above the greenery.

It took us a little while to find a picnic spot, but eventually we climbed down a steep rocky patch to a tiny private section of lakeshore.

I love my cute adventure buddy.

The water was so CLEAR!

Amber dipped one foot in at a time. I had planned on soaking my feet in the water too, but the air was just cool enough at the lake that I worried I'd get too cold if I put my feet in the icy water. So I kept my shoes on.

Pancha was very attentive during our picnic and scored a big piece of tuna that fell out of Rose's sandwich.

Amber ate with her feet in the water, peacefully taking in the natural grandeur.

See what I mean? Dahlia is a nature baby! She loved it!

My bark boat. The mast kind of tipped waaay over when I set it in the water, haha.

Amber, organizing her boat decor.

Rose's boat was simple and elegant with a solid mast in the middle and a pretty leaf-sail.

Amber's finished boat was well decorated.

I love spending time outside with my sweet daughters. Amber said she mad that face because the sun was so bright. 

Girls' hike! One more selfie before we headed back down the trail. The way back started with an uphill just like the way out, because the lake was in a basin that we had to climb up out of. After that, it was downhill the rest of the way back.

Dahlia took a very cute smooshy-cheeked nap on the side of the baby backpack.

There was plenty of trail traffic, but everyone was very considerate and I loved seeing people smile automatically when they saw Dahlia. In this picture, Rose is on the right in yellow, Mel is in the middle with Pancha on the edge of the switchback, and Amber is in pink just below Mel.

Amber kept wanting to collect big rocks. I vetoed the huge ones, so she asked me to take a picture of them "so I can remember them."

Wendy's dinner. Meh. But Rose and Amber were happy!

In other news: 

• Summer swim team season ended this week. The last meet we attended was on Tuesday. Amber finally won two much-hoped-for "heat winner" ribbons. She was ecstatic!
• Jay has been creating massive lunches for himself, full of protein. 
• Rose and I started playing piano-cello duets more regularly. We started working on a song by the Piano Guys and it is hilariously hard but also lots of fun.
• Our blackberries started ripening this week and we picked several bowls full of large juicy berries. Berry-loving Amber was in heaven!
• Wildfire smoke rolled in on Thursday, but thankfully stayed mostly in orange and yellow AQI zones so we could still function mostly normally outside.

Amber, with her two heat winner ribbons!

Amber, filling her bowl to the max. She held it against her shirt and got berry juice on her white t-shirt. The rest of the day, I kept finding purple stains all over our white kitchen: on the counter, on the stool, on the floor, on the cabinet door. Amber is all-in like that.

These berries are so big and so juicy!

Jay's lunch one day: 2 scrambled eggs, 1 sausage, 2 chicken drumsticks, 1 banana, some baguette, a bowl of ramen, a cup of yogurt, and a mug of milk. He said this meal kept him very full, and he almost couldn't finish it. Once he gets his braces off, I may have to implement a one-veggie-for-every-type-of-protein rule or something, haha.

Duets! We do not sound good yet!