Trail 60: Sand Lake

I am living in hiker haven. There are probably over a hundred trailheads in the area and although many of them are quickly closing for the winter, I am determined to get one in at least every weekend until the snow shuts them down or the cold scares me off. 

Listed as one of the easier hikes in the area and one of the closest, Sand Lake seemed like a good excursion for my first weekend out in the forest. Joined by two other Amerimembers Ainsley and Chris, we headed out mid morning for the six-mile trail. 

The directions I had found were vague at best without any mile markers so we kept watch for inconspicuous dirt roads in the White Pass area. Shortly after we passed a Forest Service road that elicited unfavorable disgruntlement from Chris, I opted to surf for new directions and after a bit of link-hopping, found that we in fact wanted the service road that Chris had scoffed at. 

The road was definitely more traveled for service vehicles than for hikers. In Ainsley's little car, we warily bumped and thumped our way half way up the three miles before encountering a pothole that defeated our ambition. We parked the car and hiked up the rest of the way until we got to a small, almost passable wood sign marking the trail. At first, it appeared to be randomly placed on the side of the road in front of a steep tree line and when we looked around for a trail head, I joked "Okay, up there!"But as we approached the bend, it turned out not to be a joke at all. It was very seriously "up there". The first mile or so of trail led us at a steep incline through thickly moss-lined forest growth. In the morning light, dew still stuck to the floor leaves and made a good excuse for much-needed stops.

Eventually, the tree line broke to a rigid rocky overlook and as we emerged, we found Rainier staring us in the face. 

From there, the clear view got obscured once again as we entered into a surreal realm of forest fire brush. I had seen burn areas from the edge but never walked right through the midst of such a vast area of one.

 Right in the middle of the animated twists and jagged edged scorched wood was a small pond. "Sand Lake?" At first, I thought it could very well be, as Sand Lake earned its name for being incredibly shallow a lot of the time since it is not connected to anything and receives its water from mountain snow melts. At the end of the summer, how much would there be? 

This became a running joke as we ventured back into the woods on the other side, this time our surroundings leveling out and becoming more spacious, interspersed with meadows. It was muddier and we kept running into "sand lakes", eventually some leaking onto the trail itself. Here in the moister woods we began to notice an impressive array of wild mushrooms, from tiny little pin-drop buttons to monstrous, orange speckled displays. After a number of small bodies of water and a little confusion about where the trail was going, Ainsley spotted a LOT of water through the trees. 

Sand lake was much prettier than I had anticipated. And there was still quite a bit of water. It was shallow enough so as not to be too cold and the bank on our side of the trail splayed out with a nice line of big "seating" rocks directly in the sunlight. We sat for a while and I watched vibrations at the center of the lake mysteriously speed and slow down on a seemingly still body of water. Across the other side, we could see camps of Pacific Crest Trail through hikers, as we had officially connected to the PCT at the lake. 

The way down took us through yet another slightly different ecology on the southbound PCT. The trails got wider and muddier and were replete with horse evidence. We were back into deeper woods, hugging the edge of an incline on one side and looking down into a streamy valley on the other. As we neared a portion of the trail where we could hear cars, the directions got confusing again. The only sign posted was one which helpfully read "no bycicles". 

Although our sources had claimed Sand Lake as a loop trail, we found ourselves coming out on Highway 12 which we walked back to our service road. There, we were fortunate enough to encounter Ryan, a young hunter taking his truck up for a camp-out and very willing to let us hang off the back the rest of the way. He confirmed that there was no way this trail looped. So at least we hadn't missed anything. 

All in all, it was a nice hike and the lake was definitely worth seeing.  Around this time of year it seemed to be the perfect time for it. There was not a lot of traffic and the water is clear but on a sunny day like we had with a slight fall breeze, temperatures were incredibly comfortable. Who knows, maybe I will even go back in a few weeks to catch some fall colors. But next time, I'll just take the turn-around back down. I wouldn't mind going through that crazy burn forest twice.