Snowy Lakes?

They are now!

Two weeks ago I set off for the Snowy Lakes north of Cutthroat Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail to research them for my upcoming Backpacking Washington Book. Talk about a beautiful destination- and the journey too along the Cascade Crest in the shadows of pyramidal Tower Mountain and the Golden Horn. The weather was superb- over 70 degrees. The larches had just started to turn. Talk about good fortune, for the Snowy Lakes are now buried in snow and will probably remain so until next July. Only a few more weeks of good hiking remains here in the North Cascades. Get those miles in now or it will be a long time before the warm weather returns. And who knows what this winter will be like. All I know is that the last two years have brought cooler-than-normal temps and some higher-than-unusual precipitation to these parts. Climate change? Of course it is- climates always change!!! But it sounds more like a cooling has begun, no? We'll see-and don't be surprised if the Snowy Lakes don their namesake a little bit longer next summer.

(photo-lower Snowy Lake with the Golden Horn in the background)