My dad and I left the house at 4:45 to meet up with Mark (one of my dad's buddies) for a hike up in the mountains. After meeting Mark and picking up Dave, one of Mark's friends, we headed up to the trail head for Snow Lake.
The night before it snowed 12-18 inches, the first of the year. The first 30 minutes it was still dark and we hiked by lamp light. As it got lighter, we started to see how spectacular the views were.
Before long the terrain started heading up (the beginning of our 1000 feet of elevation gain).
As the switchbacks increased, so did the rests, and the stories!
After a little over 2 miles and around an hour and a half we reached the ridge and the view of Snow Lake.
Until the night before this hike, I didn't have any waterproof hiking boots. My dad insisted I get some. I was glad I did. There were about a dozen creek crossings on the hike, and of course all of that snow. My feet were happy and dry the whole way.
The pictures only begin to show how grand the view was. The valley was at least 10 miles across, and the year's first snow made it seem even bigger.
And if you want to see some real pictures (that is, pics that weren't taken by my awesome 2mp camera phone) visit Mark's Flickr page.
I managed to get a little more than half of the voyaged mapped out using my phone. This is a great hike, although it probably shouldn't be attempted until next Spring. Mark said there are frequently avalanches when the snow gets any deeper than 18 inches.
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