For lack of a better term, this hike was an experience. This beast is an 18 mile through hike, and can take an insane amount of time if you're my friend and I who thought it was not going to possibly take 17 hours, but somehow it did. My disclaimer is I'm from the Midwest and we don't have mountains here. My friend's disclaimer is she is she has been living in Washington for about a year and she had coworkers that said it "wasn't that bad". This hike was absolutely amazing, but definitely something you need to be physically and mentally prepared for. And, there are lots of mountain goats, need I say more.
There are two trailheads to this hike, both outside of Leavenworth, WA, which in and of itself is a precious town with great food and beer and coffee (like many places in Washington, which I can appreciate). It's a pretty touristy spot, which is nice in that there is a lot of lodging and food and groceries and such. The trailheads are the Snow Lake and the Stuart Lake lots. We parked at the Snow Lake trail head, and took a shuttle to the Stuart Lake in order to start there. There are a lot of considerations with regards to which side you start on, the biggest being Aasgard Pass. You can either chose to start at the Stuart Trail Head and hike up Aasgard Pass to access the Upper Enchantments first, or start from Snow Lake and hike down Aasgard pass at the end, which also does not seem like a good time. We'll get to that in a bit, but the Snow Lake to Stuart Lake route gains 7000ft of elevation and has a 5000ft descent, where as the the Stuart Lake to Snow Lake is the opposite and you go down a whole lot after scrambling up Aasgard pass. Which sounds easy in theory, but we'll also get to that.
The Enchantments really are beyond words spectacular. There are several lakes you hike to and around, and the beauty is worth the pain. We intended on an earlier start- 5am shuttle from Snow to Stuart, but the company had a van break down so we were picked up at 6am, taken to the other trail head (about a 30 min drive), had to use the restroom (which took an unreal amount of time with the people in line), and got on the trail around 7:30am. Which was WAY TOO LATE (spoiler alert). The first 4 miles or so were through a forest, and it was pretty similar to the Smoky Mountains in terms of ascent and difficulty.
The first stop was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life- Colchuck Lake. I've never seen water so emerald and clear, and the mountains surrounding it took my breath away. It was at that point when my friend pointed to one of those mountains and said, "That's where we're climbing up." To which I replied, "That doesn't even seem like it should be a trail." and neither of us were incorrect. Aasgard Pass is a big bitch. But to get there, you walk all the way around Colchuck Lake and go the wrong way a few times and friendly other humans direct you back to the path. Then you cross an entire field of boulders, and then another one, and then you reach the base of Aasgard Pass which is a solid mile straight vertical of rock scramble, and you gain 2,200ft of elevation. This was more difficult for us when you add in it was 90* outside and the heat coming off the rocks was mild torture. There was a lot of cursing and looking up and wondering how we could possibly not be there yet, while looking back down at the lake and seeing how far we'd come. That lake gets very far away by the time you finally get up there. And, starting at the boulder field, there are many stacks of cairns to guide the way. Which is helpful because the key to Aasgard is staying to the left and not climbing up the Waterfall of Death to the right that is impassible. The whole thing felt like a joke with the level of difficulty and hoping we were going the correct direction, but that may have been delirium from the heat talking. That is the "hard part" of the hike, at least as it was advertised to us.
After the slug up Aasgard, there was a beautiful break for several miles in which you could enjoy everything The Enchantments had to offer. The terrain was astounding. It looked like walking on the surface of the moon. The next lake you come to is Isolation Lake, then some other little lakelettes (which is a word I learned that day and it's very cute). There was then a steep drop covered in snow cone material that I slid down like a slip and slide (not on purpose) down to Inspiration Lake, where we hung out with a Mountain Goat family for a bit. The next lakes were Perfection (aptly named) and Sprite, which was connected on the other side of Perfection. Then Leprechaun Lake and Lake Viviane round out the lakes in the Enchantments portion of the hike.
Then followed this hilarious moment where we were half way through the hike, it had taken 11 hours, and the next lake, Snow Lake, was THIS far away. This was a sharp descent of 1,000ft over a mile, and it was honestly equally difficult to Aasgard Pass. Going down the side of a mountain on steep rock faces where you had to be very careful not to tumble off and down was not my favorite part. It took forever, and at this point we had three hours of light left to go 8 miles down the side of a mountain and we started to get a bit anxious.
We eventually made it down and around Snow Lake, and the final lake was, again, very far away. It was also down a pretty steep rocky path, but not as bad as the descent down to Snow Lake. We got to Nada Lake at Golden Hour, and rounded it as dusk set in. Then we started our final decent through the woods in the pitch black for the final 5 miles, and it took a solid couple of hours. We played music from our phone speakers to announce our presence to any woodland creatures, and had our head lamps. Everything around us was complete darkness. At one point, my friend told me to look up, as we'd been so focused on the ground in front of us. The stars were so bold and bright, and it was a welcomed break to stop and appreciate them before the end of our hike. Also, word of warning, the trail does branch off from the main road that it leads to, and you end up walking up to someone's garage thinking it's the light at the end of the tunnel. It is not. Then you have to backtrack a bit to find the split back to the trail and get to the actual trailhead. Not that we did this, and not that I considered just sleeping in this stranger's garage like a stray dog.
I would not have made it through this hike without my friend, trekking poles, and AllTrails. AllTrails was surprisingly accurate, and it helped us pace ourselves and stay on course. I used the text feature from my InReach to keep my friends updated, as we thought this was going to be a 12 hour day at most- lol at that. I'm sure those used to the terrain can go much faster, but even at our pace, I'm so glad we did it. I was SORE after in a way I had never been, but it was so worth it. Also, I'm a new Trekking Pole convert. I don't care that they're "for old people", my knees were totally fine after 18 miles and would not have been otherwise. And I didn't roll my jello ankles. I brought way too much stuff with me and my back was sore from carrying my pack, but turns out the number of snacks and sandwiches were crucial for survival. I also brought a battery pack for my phone and InReach if needed, and my friend had a great Katadyn BeFree 3L water filter you can fill up and run through the line. I had my LifeStraw, but I was becoming annoyed at how slow it was to drink from, so I didn't use it much. Between water and Liquid IV, I consumed about 5L of fluids that hike. Maybe more, idk.
You may also be wondering why we didn't camp- The permits are few and far between and very difficult to get, so this was the best and only option. We made a lot of not jokes about this being Type Two fun, and it definitely was, because I would do it again no matter how much my body would hate me.
Comments
Post a Comment