[bdrkayaker]

Never posted a report here, but love the site for its wealth of info and amazing pictures and adventures. I've been wanting to hike up Big Snow for some time, after seeing it from Snoqualmie Mountain. It's relative remoteness (=solitude) with the gating of the middle fork road was a huge lure, as were the beautiful pics of old trip reports. Nitobe and I got a 7:30 start from the gate at the Taylor River, biking up the road in cool weather. We each had full suspension mountain bikes which, while not necessary, definitely made the ride more pleasant. We took a little less then three hours to make it up to the Hardscrabble trail parking area (large pullout after the giant log on the side of the road). This time could have been reduced if we'd biked harder, but we took our time and stopped to check out the river in a few spots. The trail to Lower Hardscrabble is returning to nature. We saw some fresh boot prints in the mud so it is clear that people make it up there, but the trail is seriously overgrown with alder at the beginning. Cairns assist in staying on track through the early talus field but the way is pretty obvious. We arrived at the Lower Lake with pretty heavy cloud cover, traversed left on the west side of the lake through nonstop pika chirps, and had a snack at the inflow while looking up at the impressive east buttress of Big Snow. We ended up making the mistake of heading up to the Upper Lake on the right side of the inflow waterfall. After bashing and schwacking up a steep slope, we crossed the stream and continues on a well defined trail to the upper lake. ***Passed two very large fresh bear prints in the mud!!*** From the upper lake, we headed around on the west side, up the inflow, and through talus and scrubby trees to below two obvious gullies. We dropped a pack, climbed the left gulley, and proceeded to climb more talus up to the pass where we got some nice views of the lakes to the north (Gold, Dorothy, etc). Unfortunately, the clouds had descended and we couldn't see much in terms of other peaks. We headed up the football field and had a great time climbing through fun rocks up to the summit, with only one small snow patch at the base of the summit that we could have avoided if we'd wanted to. The summit was pretty clouded in, but still a great place to relax. There are soooo many flat and beautiful places to bivy up around the plateaus surrounding the summit! Can't wait to return in nicer weather. The register (in an old water bottle) has one page left. Last entry August 1, 2009. Headed back down from the summit just before 4pm and were back at the bikes at 7. The ride down was fast and fun (again full suspension helped here), and after stopping for a refreshing splash in the river we were back at the car at 8:30 with the very last of the light. Super fun trip! I can't wait to see that place on a clear sunny day. One day was too short - I'd love to loop some of the lakes we saw and enjoy that area more thoroughly (especially Big Snow Lake). Although it is tempting to say the trip was no big deal, I was wupped by the end of ride out!

Big Snow Lake, Snowflake Lake, Myrtle Lake, and Lake Dorothy

Lower Hardscrabble Lake and East Buttress of Big Snow

View back to the football field and pass

The heather was in full bloom

The football field with peaks in the distance starting to emerge

Nitobe heading back down to Upper Hardscrabble Lake with Overcoat and Lemah peaks shrouded by clouds.

The Misty Mountains

[D. Inscho]

Great post from a beautiful area! I had to laugh at your miscue going from lower to upper Hardscrabble; I did that same brush-bash my first time up there to camp at the ridgeline tarn, found the trail on the way back down. The ridgeline meadows are fabulously cozy & scenic, worth going back for a stay...

[Tom]

You must be in good shape to do all of that in a day! If you go in again I'd suggest Dingford to Big Snow Lake (via the outlet). Can't think of an easy way to loop out thanks to the Dingford gate, but at least you've seen Hardscrabble.

[naturealbeing]

Welcome to NWHikers! You sure know how to take advantage of the hours in a day. Glad you were able to get the job done, to bad about the clouds hiding your views. From what I've been told, the Big Snow Quad has more peaks than any of the other quads in WA state. Just to tease you to get back up there under better conditions.

87 labels

Panorama from Big Snow Mtn. 8.13.06.

[Dayhike Mike]

Niiice! Thanks for the TR. Brings back lots of great memories... Glad to hear the trail is still in reasonable shape, even if it's suffering a bit from disuse. And welcome to the site! Here's to hoping you continue to post your adventures...

[Backpacker Joe]

Yes welcome. Great work.

[bdrkayaker]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! That is an amazing pano. We saw it in the register bottle, and thought it was a cool thing to include. D. Inscho, do you mean the ridge above and east of the upper Lake? We thought that ridge looked really neat - the trees looked very striking scattered among those meadows.

USMM2 ridge between upper Hardscrabble Lake and the Middle Fork valley

Tom, I'd like to hike in next time via Dingford. That would cut out the hardest part of the bike ride and it sounds like that trail is much nicer. It was very cool to see the Hardscrabble lakes though - they are very beautiful. The proximity of the area to the West Fork Foss lakes is very enticing as well and it seems like it should be possible to figure out a way to loop in from there....

[Tom]

You could loop out the Foss or Camp Robber Valley. Problem is the car shuttle unless someone will be dropping you off and picking you up. Also, not sure how you would retrieve your bikes from Dingford. A dropoff would make more sense once you can drive to Dingford.

[DIYSteve]

Nice Brings back memories years ago

[ChinookPass]

Studs! I tried that route a few years ago and couldn't find any route through the alder from the "parking" area. Any clues? In any case, the Dingford side is nice except for some bushwacking right above Myrtle and a little sketchiness to get around the outlet waterfall.

[bdrkayaker]

[Sabahsboy]

Photo view of Lower Hardscrabble Lake with East Buttress is truly alpine and frightening, spectacular! Just the scene I love! Thrilling! Thank you for photos, fascinating TR and contributing to reports.

[DIYSteve]

[Malachai Constant]

Last time I was there was on Eds final trip. Then the trail was clearer than it had been in the 90's but still subtle. It started on an abandoned road with encroaching Alders then traversed to the lower lake. The trail went around the lake to the inlet but headed up quite a bit to the left of the inlet through small trees and heavy brush. There were several campsites at the upper lake. The route above the lake was indefinite and braided. There was considerable talus to the ridge. It is easy to drop down to Gold Lake and you can continue to Chetwoot on game trails. I assume it will pretty much revert to nature now.

[Dayhike Mike]