I was pretty excited to take this route when I first read about it. It would be familiar to me. Josephine Lake is located in the Stevens Pass backcountry, near where I took my avalanche class in the winter. I thought it would be really fun to see what the little winter wonderland looked like in the summer time. It would also be a shorter drive, which I never have a problem with.
For those who know me, you'll probably laugh at this story because it's so typical. The last time we went hiking we took our hiking shoes out of the truck because it was starting to smell like something died in there. So when we were close to Monroe on this trip, David said "Oh my god, did you bring your shoes?" No. Sure enough, they were sitting right outside the door to our apartment. We had to drive all the way back to Seattle and sit in the miserable traffic yet again. Oh well, that's probably the only time we'll ever make that mistake.
Yum.
Back on our way. Next stop, Sultan bakery. This is quite possibly the most wonderful little gem of Podunk restaurants one can find on Highway 2. They have these massive loaves of bread in the back that they make massive sandwiches with. We just got doughnuts but I can't wait to try one of those sandwiches sometime. We took Highway 2 all the way up to the big left and then turned off at a Forest Service road that I didn't even know existed. I guess I always see that area buried in snow. The dirt road was short, and we shortly reached the Tunnel Creek trailhead. There wasn't much parking here, but it didn't look like it was needed either. Supposedly this is a low-use trail. As we started up, I could see why it was a low-use trail. This thing was relentless. They had even installed log "stairs"for part of it because of the steep grade. Luckily there was only about 1.6 miles of this until we reached Hope Lake and the intersection of the Pacific Crest Trail.
I didn't end up getting any photos of Hope Lake. It was kind of a disappointment, actually. I guess this trail had a lot to live up to considering the fact that we were on top of Mt. Daniel last week. Moving on. We hiked up the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) for about another mile and reached Mig Lake. This lake was a bit more picturesque, with pretty little plants growing in the water, dragonflies in abundance.
The huckleberry bushes in the meadows had all changed to a bright red, making a beautiful contrast with the delectable little berries that hung on them. There were so many berries we literally had to stop ourselves from eating them. I could have taken enough home to make a pie. They are so delicious! We kept hiking on the PCT passing a few people along the way. One guy was headed all the way to Snoqualmie Pass. He said he had passed two groups of people who had been hiking all the way from Mexico! I couldn't imagine taking a trip that far. It is pretty amazing to imagine that it's possible though. I would just wonder what you would eat after you ran out of food. We hiked up another fairly steep slope, passing Swimming Deer Lake at the top. We didn't see any swimming deer unfortunately.
Finally, we could see Josephine Lake far below us. The trail split, intersecting with the Icicle Creek trail, which we took. This trail circled all the way around the lake for about a mile. When we reached the bottom, we searched for a camp. Many of the camps were closed for restoration, but we were able to find a fairly large area tucked away in the woods with a view of the lake. We had the whole area to ourselves, a first since our very first trip to Spider Meadow.
Going for a swim.
The next day, we decided to hike over to the Stevens Pass ski resort. The route took us back to the PCT, which climbed up and over another saddle. Below us was beautiful little Lake Susan Jane. We immediately wished we had camped here. It was tucked below the steep avalanche ridden slope that I had descended with my backcountry class in the winter. There was a perfect campsite right at the edge of the water. Bummer. We were too lazy to pack up and move all of our stuff. After exploring around the lake a bit, we continued on into the valley known as "the backside". At least that's what it's known as in the winter, because it literally is the backside of the ski resort. We could see a bunch of machinery and people doing who knows what at the bottom of the chair lifts. The valley was blanketed in huckleberry bushes, making a lovely mix of red, yellow and orange contrasting against the clear blue sky. It was truly gorgeous.
Lake Susan Jane
We passed under the power lines and switchbacked through Corona Bowl and the blue ski runs, finally reaching the top of Tye Mill around lunch time. It was funny as we got close to the top because someone had placed a red cooler with "thru hikers"printed on the top. It was empty besides a composition book in the bottom. From the notes, the cooler must have been filled with beer at one point in time because some of the notes were very excited and some were pissed to have hiked all the way from Mexico only to find an empty cooler at the top of Stevens Pass. I'd be pissed too. Someone should really refill that cooler, it's a tease being empty like that.
Jupiter Chairlift.
We stopped to make some lunch and take photographs. There were lots of pretty little flowers and even pikas running around. Pikas are cousins of the rabbit, only a much smaller version, almost the size of a mouse. They have the same mannerisms of a rabbit though, and they're pretty darn cute.
Pika.
Cowboy Mountain.
We started our hike back to Josephine Lake around two o'clock. It had been a pretty good hike and it was really fun to see what the ski resort looked like in the summer. When we returned to Josephine Lake, another couple showed up. They ended up camping somewhere further away in the woods so we still kind of felt like we had it to ourselves.
On our hike back to the car on Wednesday, we solved one of our biggest questions: How do bears eat the huckleberries off of the bushes? I mean, it's a legitimate question. Bears have big snouts, and the berries are tiny and delicate. Well in the middle of the trail we ran into a pretty large pile of bear poop. Berries, leaves, and all. So that's how they do it. They eat the whole bush. After running into the poop I was my senses were heightened, just in case we ran into a big black cuddly friend on the trail. Luckily we didn't and made it back to the car around two.
Mushrooms everywhere! Super Mario inspiration?
This was a pretty good trip, especially considering it had a lot to live up to after our spectacular trip up Mt. Daniel last week. The fall colors were beautiful, it was relaxing, and we were able to just enjoy the great outdoors. We're hoping for a trip up to Mt. Baker next week if the weather cooperates. At this time of year, we could run into snow!
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