A challenging climb brought us to a gorgeous overlook point before the descent to Soda Peaks Lake. Trail was in great condition, although narrow at times. There were a lot of mosquitos and one little tick on the tent, Ben's 30 worked well hiking in and out when the bugs were really attracted to our sweat. The lake was a refreshing swim, but sadly no fish were caught this trip.

We can't wait to make this hike and weekend camp-over an annual trip!

Attempted to hike to Soda Peaks Lake via Trapper Creek Trailhead. From the beginning there were many downed trees across the Trapper Creek trail, which we were expecting as the trail hasn't been cleared yet. Fallen trees were mostly easy to go over/around, though it may be difficult for children. Continued to be downed trees once we reached Soda Peaks trail #133, but again nothing terribly difficult. After we crossed the bridge over Trapper Creek, there was some snow cover making the trail a little difficult to follow but we pressed on. Reached a large downed old growth tree which marks the beginning of the real ascent of Soda Peak trail. Once we started up there were less downed trees, and snow was minimal. There were however a few switchbacks on the way up that had trees down right on the switchback, making it necessary to climb around and relocate the trail. We encountered some rangers near the bridge that said the trail would probably be covered in snow, but we did not find that to be the case until the very end. Made it to probably half a mile of the lake when we came to a flat somewhat open area covered in snow where we lost the trail. Tried to forge on ahead a little to find signs but didn't feel confident I could find the trail again on the way back. It will probably be another 2-3 weeks before the trail is clear enough to make it all the way to the lake. Still a good hike on a nice sunny day.

I drove up through Battleground then Amboy then it's about 20 miles of gravel/some paved road(NF-54). I did it in a geo metro, it was fine. Parked at the trailhead. Unless you know where it's at you won't find it by driving around. Signage/wilderness permits are about 250 feet In to the trail. We started the hike around 1pm. It has been raining all week, so conditions were muddy. The trail is in beautiful condition. The trail runs along the spine of the mountain, it starts off quite easy, the last 1/3 of the ascent is quite steep. Poles highly recommended. We reached the top, it was cloudy so we couldn't see the lake or Mt.Adam's. But with GPS could confirm our heading. From the top we continued walking 100 feet and the trail starts disappearing, then another 100 and its gone. Confused we walked back to the view point at the top. Then we noticed an orange ribbon on a stick propped against a log. We then saw another ribbon. The ribbons were going straight down to the lake. There was NO trail this was a completely gruesome downhill bushwack. Following the ribbons (blue now) they lead all the way down to the lake to a daysite. Spent about an hour at the lake which was very pretty. Saw several fish jump. Found 2 tiny campsites. The trail around the lake is pretty thick. Saw signs of bear activity, no animals sighted. Although i guess it doesnt help that we were banging our poles to make noise every so often. Anyways we bushwacked back up from the lake to the view point at the top of the ridge, still using the ribbons. It was brutal. The rest of the hike was downhill and naturally quite nice. We got back to the car at 6pm. I don't know what's up with the trail. But from what I saw today it's gone. I don't know who put up those ribbons leading down to the lake but it's the only way down as far as we could see. And we bushwacked at the top for awhile looking for any trail. In conclusion we set out for an adventure and we got one so I'm glad we went. However I would not recommend this hike until a maintenence crew comes through.

This hike was steep and challenging but due to it's variety of topography, we didn't realize how far we had walked and we found ourselves above the lake pretty quickly. It was cloudy for most of the hike, but the views were still quite dramatic. The lake was a nice place to have lunch. Our old dogs did very well on the hike.

Hiked to Soda Peaks Lake via Trapper Creek Trailhead. Confirmed with USFS employee that the old trail from Government Mineral Springs to the beginning of Soda Peaks trail has been decommissioned. The trail was in good condition the entire way; the lower portion had very recently been cleared of brush and blowdown. The hike is just as steep as advertised, a similar experience to hiking Dog Mountain. The lake is very pretty, but we didn't stay long as the wind was very chilly at the higher elevations. Total hike time was just over 4 hours, but we were hiking fairly fast.