Blue Lake

We arrived at the trailhead a little before 10am, and as expected the trailhead parking lot was already full, with probably 20 or so cars parked along the road. While it was a week day, it was the middle of summer, on a beautiful day with no smoke in sight, and this is one of the most popular hikes off of highway 20 in the north cascades.

We made our way to the trailhead, and started our hike up to Blue Lake. While I have been here a number of times, it has always been for backcountry skiing, whether in late fall before the road closes or in the spring when the road opens back up. I was excited to be in the area during the summer and get a different perspective on the area.

Start of the hike with Summit leading the charge

We walked across the boardwalk. I imagine in late spring and early summer this area could be very moist, necessitating the boardwalk, however it looked to be very dry. There were some missing boards in spots, but they were easy to step over. Knowing how much snow piles up in the winter, I'm surprised the boardwalk isn't in worse shape. Once off the boardwalk and a ways from the parking lot, my parents let their dog Belle off the leash. They have an electric collar they use which essentially functions as a leash, and she is a mellow older dog anyways. My parents have a spare collar and control unit, and they offered it to me. However, my dog is an energetic, almost 70 pound 10 month old, who thinks every dog and person he encounters wants to interact with him, so there was no way I was going try and use the eclectic collar.

Heading up the Blue Lake trail

While the trail starts pretty mellow, soon it begins to ascend. It's not particularly steep, with appropriate switchbacks when needed, but you do cover a decent amount of vertical in a short amount of time, and as expected, there are a fair amount of roots and rocks to contend with. With my parents dog Belle up ahead, my puppy Summit was practically pulling me up the trail to keep up with her. At times I decided to jog with him so we could catch up with Belle, at which point he didn't pull nearly as much. We reached a clearing and had our first views of the Liberty Bell and I could see Blue Lake Col, an objective in the winter, peaking out above.

First full views of the area

With my dog pulling me up the trail trying to keep pace with my parent's dog, my son and I were getting ahead of my parents. My dad is 81, and hadn't done this type of hike in awhile, so he was sticking to a more moderate pace, and we pulled over a couple of times to wait for my mom and dad to catch up.

My dad coming up the trail

After a quick consult of the map, I realized we were getting close to Blue Lake, with a traverse over and then a final short hike ascent to the lake. We waited for my parents to catch up again, and then had a quick break before doing the final push.

My son on the final section up to Blue Lake

My son and I got ahead of my parents again, and coming up to the lake, the trail splits heading on either side of the lake. We decided to wait here for my parents and pulled off on the side of the trail. A woman passing by thought my dog looked very majestic sitting there, and snapped a couple of selfies with him!

First view of Blue Lake

Once my parents and their dog arrived, we headed right. The trail splits again, with a short loop above the lake, but we decided to find a nice resting spot after a few hundred yards. There was a large rock that looked nice, but there were quite a few people on it already, so we landed on a spot along the shore nearby. There was a couple working on inflating a paddleboard, and soon the woman was floating away, with the man taking some photos, perfect Instagram material!

Blue Lake

We hydrated and munched on some food, swatting away the mosquitoes. They weren't horrible, but I came away with a few bites, and killed at least 5 of them during our 15 minute break there. I decided I wanted to hike up the other side to get some more photos of the lake, and my son, parents and their dog started the descent down from the lake. The trail on the northeast side of the lake didn't really seem like a legit trail, as it split apart a number of times, but I found a spot with a nice view of the lake and hopped up on a fallen tree to take some pictures.

Blue Lake from above

While taking photos, my dog must have seen an animal or something, but he tried to take off, and almost pulled me down. I let go of the leash to steady myself, and next thing I knew he was running down the hill! I tried to chase after, but quickly lost sight of him. I walked around for a bit, shouting his name, but didn't see any sign of him. He is what's called a velcro dog, and typically doesn't wander off very far from me, but I wasn't sure where he was. I thought maybe he headed down to find the rest of our group, as he typically likes to stay near my parent's dog. So I decided to head down the trail and make sure he wasn't down with him, and if he wasn't, then I would head back up confident he was somewhere around the lake.

I jogged down the trail and caught up with them, and of course Summit wasn't there. I gave my parents my car keys and told them to keep going down. My son really wanted to come with me, but I was going to run back up the trail and knew he would have a hard time keeping pace. As I neared the lake, I saw a group coming down with my dog. They had been chilling at the lake and heard me yelling his name, and a short while after, they saw him walking around the lake looking for me (he has his name on his harness). He came up to them, and they decided to start walking down the trail.

Of course my parents had told people on their way down about the missing dog, and it seemed like almost every group I came across knew about Summit and his escape! I eventually caught up with my parents and son and we made it back to the car without incident. That night, I was walking Summit around Winthrop (we spent a couple of days up in Winthrop), and while walking by an RV Park, a person came out and said "Glad to see you found your dog!". It all worked out, and now I know to be more careful with holding his leash while taking photos!