Independence Lake/Coal Lake/Big 4 Ice Caves

Tried to make up for laying on the couch all day yesterday watching college football. Probably overdid it.    

Independence Lake  
Only 0.9 miles in (1.8 RT) and 200′ elevation gain.  Phhh. It was 0.9 miles but it was up, down, up, down then up: over roots and rocks. Not a pleasant trail. And when I got there (this is Sept 5th remember) I was dressed in 3 layers, cold and unhappy because I forgot my gloves.  

Summer at Independence Lake

  After hiking up to the top of the lake. The weather deteriorated from a cold heavy fog and drizzle to…rain. Then I stumbled on hundreds and hundreds of blueberry bushes and a few salmonberry.  This improved my mood.     

There was one big family camping on the lake. They said it had been raining for more that 24 hours. I joked that I did not bring my swimsuit. They did not care about the weather and were obviously NW natives with their tarps, tents, dogs and buckets. The hike back to the truck was slow because of my knee and foot but seemed shorter anyway.     

Coal Lake
When I first lived in Seattle in the mid 80’s I used to drive to Coal Lake to just hang.  It is not close. About 1h35m drive and really in the wilderness. The lake is just off a narrow one-lane cliff-hanging forest road (#4060) so I always thought that it would be cool to take a boat up and paddle around the lake.  After 25 years I finally did it. I portaged my canoe in about 1000′ and paddled around the lake. It drizzled, was sunny and then started raining. There was no one one there when I arrived. Later a local couple showed up to fish but did not understand why I was going around and around a 6 acre lake and left. I am glad I did it.  Not a big notch in the bucket list but I did do it.     

The Big Four Ice Caves
I have been aware of this site for 30 years but never thought much about it. I used to snow-ski near here and have hiked the area. After the paddle on Coal Lake I drove back down the forest road 2,500 feet (elevation). The trailhead was just across the highway. I thought I should at least try it since it is a trek to get here from home.     

I got out of the car to some people from Hong Kong asking me questions about registration ($5 parking fee). I explained to them and when they said thank you I said your welcome in Cantonese. Freaked them out. Their kids loved it and kept talking to me.  The next people I saw were speaking Korean. And then two couples from Mumbai asked if it was worth the hike in. The next group was from Georgia (the one in the US)  and the next from Japan. After being nearly alone just 3 miles away on Coal Lake, how could I not hike in to see the site? I also heard Spanish, Mandarin (with an obvious Taipei accent), Pakistani people and Ukrainian (I think).  I have no idea why this place is so famous with foreigners. It is not that great and it is pretty remote. I would send people to Mt Baker or Mt Rainier, but here they were.  So here I went.  2.9 miles. In fact, it was worth the hike – an amphitheater of waterfalls and a big pile of snow. Click here and then on the TERRAIN option to get an idea.     

See the people?

 My son has 2 of our cameras in Greece as well as the FlipVideo. My daughter had her good camera at a gaming convention in Seattle, so I was relegated to the tiny surfing VidCam with the fisheye lens. I did the best I could and experimented. Got lots of pictures of my fingers and the top of my cap in the frame. Still, remarkable quality for a camera as big as a match box. The sound works without the waterproof cover, but my videos were really boring.

Alright S, here are some videos. As boring as I said:

• Forest Road
• Babbling at the Lake
• Easy trail
• Canoe
• Waterfalls