Day 107

High highs and low lows today. The climb up to Snow Lake put us in a cloud which we didn’t escape until we descended to the valley floor to the east. Around the lake, we were rained on and were offered little in the way of views owing to the dense fog.

The descent, a steep 2,500’ over three miles, was along a narrow and overgrown trail consisting almost entirely of slippery and often loose rocks. I took a step where ferns concealed that the trail was entirely washed out, causing me to fall headfirst down a rocky gully. I thought I hit my head, so I sat still for a few moments and took some deep breaths. I had fallen about ten feet down, airborne for far longer than I would have liked, and I was pretty freaked out. Once I calmed down, I felt all over my head and spine for signs of blood and found none. Indeed, the fall actually drew no blood; banging up the knee that has been bothering me for 1,000 miles and hyperextending what was once my good knee are the extent of my injuries from the fall. Translation: I’m very, very lucky. With the speed and distance involved, falling just slightly differently could have resulted in a serious head or musculoskeletal injury.

Anyways, I finished the descent more carefully and joined up with a trail on an old logging road through mossy forest. After a surprisingly big creek crossing which required some parkour across a logjam, we were at Goldmyer Hot Springs! After getting a quick rundown from the caretaker, we hiked up half a mile to the pools feeling lucky that we were two of the twenty people allowed to soak each day. Photos of the pools are prohibited so my words will have to suffice: there are four pools next to the gushing creek we forded before entering the property: an ice cold pool fed by a trickling stream running down the rocky wall and a series of three hot pools fed from a 125° spring at the back of a thirty foot long cave! The cave forms the first and hottest pool, with the two downstream pools fed by a cascade from the pool above. We relaxed here for a luxurious four hours.

The hike out was twelve miles of uphill to Ivanhoe Lake. On the way, we met four guys gearing up to head to their mining claim 800 feet straight up the steep valley wall. Absolute rock hounds, they showed us tons of photos before we could finally escape and continue on. As evening fell and we neared the top of our climb, the trees fell away and we were given expansive views of the massive valley we had been passing through and the beautiful Middle Fork of the Snoqualamie River. This made the last bit easy so that soon enough we were at Ivanhoe and eating dinner—four glorious slices of leftover pizza for me! True to the Alpine Lakes WIlderness’s reputation, Ivanhoe Lake is among the most picturesque lakes I have ever encountered. What a day.