Thunder Mountain Lakes

Summer weekends always seem to fill up with road trips and family things and Saltspring Island and house projects and work stuff, so getting away for a long weekend to go backpacking never happens. But less than a week after getting back from Saltspring, I realized that it might actually work. The forecast was pretty good - cool and overcast on Friday (rare this summer) and then clear and not too hot on Saturday and Sunday. The only mystery was what direction the smoke from the Okanagan fires would drift.

I planned this hike two falls ago, but an early October snowstorm blanketed the Cascades and I headed for Vancouver Island (October 2013) instead. So this was my first overnight in the mountains since D and I hiked into Tuck and Robin Lakes (August 2011) four years ago.

From Nimbus Peak

Mt. Stuart

Thunder Mountain Lakes are on the east side of the Cascade crest, a short distance south of Trap Pass, and about a six mile hike in and up from Tunnel Creek on Route 2. Although it lies only a mile or so off of the Pacific CrestTrail, it gets little attention, partly because there isn't a formal trail and it's probably not a great destination for casual hikers - particularly if you had to find your route back out in poor conditions.

The cool weather Friday made the hike in much more pleasant than it might have been on a sunny afternoon. The side trail from Trap Pass was relatively easy to find, although route finding through the talus was tricky (again, might be a problem if trying to hike back out in fog or snow). I set up camp above the north end of the lake around 3 PM and had the whole basin to myself until two guys arrived at 7:30.

Friday night was cold and windy - or at least colder than I'd come prepared for - so I spent a less than comfortable night wishing I'd brought a warmer bag. But Saturday morning the sun came up with perfectly clear skies - not counting a brown smoke layer at lower elevations far off to both the east and west.

I spent the first part of Saturday climbing the peak immediately north of the lake (Nimbus Peak, I think), then finding a way up the peak on the south side of the lake (apparently Thunder Mountain itself is another bump south). I was back in the campsite trying to rig a sun shade by the time the smoke started wafting back in.  By sunset, it was apocalyptic, with a yellowish brown haze blocking all but the closest peaks. Four other people showed up by evening, but all camped down near the lake, leaving me some privacy. But it's amazing how well voices carry in a rocky landscape like this.

I got up early Sunday, packed, and was on the trail out by 7:30. The smoke was thick all the way out. I reached the trailhead by 11 and had lunch and texted M from the Sultan McDonalds.  I was back in Seattle a little after 1:00 - where the smoke was even worse than in the mountains.

Hiking out on Sunday morning