I left my REI flash trekking poles at the Surprise Creek TH today, please email me at catherinep at duck dot com if you have them!

With the upcoming rain and snow, it seemed that this week was the last chance to get to otherwise hard to reach places. I decided to try to reach Thunder Mountain Lakes, but it was a bit tricky because I had to be back home at 3pm. I started at 3:30am, which turned out to not be sufficient. I got some nice views anyway! I made it to just below Slippery Slab Tower.

Of course the conditions will drastically change this week, so I'm not sure it's super helpful, but anyway: Surprise Lake was easy with just microspikes. Up to Trap Pass there was a snowshoe track that seemed to be from a single person. Snowshoes were helpful/necessary there. After Trap Pass, the ridge was pretty solid snow, but then there is a little open boulder area where some form of flotation seemed necessary. Snow got pretty deep above 6000ft.

I realized that Thunder Mountain Lakes was still quite far so decided to chill out for a while and then turn back. The trip down was very fast though, so I had some time to take the PCT to Glacier Lake which was a nice interruption of the switchbacks.

Stats: ~14 miles, 4500ft gain.

Arrived at the Tunnel Creek trailhead at about 8:15am on Saturday. There are only a few real pull-off areas that are parking spots. The rest is just parking along the forest road. There about a half dozen vehicles when got there. There is no bathroom at the trailhead. We started hiking at about 8:30am, and made it to Hope Lake about 9:30am. We took the detour down to Trap Lake, and were there around 10:45am. We got to the turnoff of the PCT at about 11:30am. From there, it was mostly snow covered to the lakes. The boulder scramble area can be hard to navigate, and we spent a lot more time than expected following the cairns and few boot tracks from that morning. At the end when descending to the upper lake, the trail was very hard to find and we followed the boot tracks only, which unfortunately were on the snow-covered vegetation. We made it to the first lake at about 12:40pm. We ate lunch there and decided with the late time to not search for a path to the second lake. The trail was easier to follow on the way out, but still took longer than expected with the snow travel, including the slippery downhill section back to the PCT. We didn’t make it back to the trailhead until about 5pm. Overall, the trail was pretty remote. A few backpacking groups. Back at the trailhead, there were about a half dozen more vehicles along the road. 

I wanted to hike solo this Saturday and my buddy suggested this hike as we were planning on doing another strenuous hike on Sunday.

I could not resist his suggestion. 1.5 hr drive from Lynnwood to the Tunnel Creek TH and only about 1.2 mi drive on a typical pot-holey gravel forest road, and promising fall colors? Yes, please.

Started around 8 am and there were quite a few cars there already. I did expect this on a nice weekend as some people would do some parts of the PCT.

I'd say Tunnel creek trail was okay, it's a bit narrow and it was mostly in a shaded area. Some views opened up about 0.5 mi after Hope Lake.

I think after Hope Lake, I was technically on PCT trail. This trail was pretty mellow and I met quite a few of trailrunners. The view got better and better with fall foliage and Trap Lake on my left. 

I think after 5.3 mi ish, there's a junction and that's when I took the Thunder Mountain Lakes Trail on my left. The trail was more difficult than the PCT. There was a short section on boulders and there were also helpful cairns there.

Reached the lake in less than 4 hours (just before noon). I did not see many hikers there which was surprising but I met at least 4 backpackers on the way down.

The lake was amazing with few 'sandy beaches' area and some empty spots to camp. Fall colors were there but I think it'd be even better next week. I think there's a bootpath to the other Thunder Lake but I was pretty happy just to view it from above.

Solo overnight trip to Thunder Mountain Lakes via Tunnel Creek. I started around 1pm with clear skies and made it to the upper lake around 6pm with fog so thick I couldn't see 100 yards ahead of me. The trail was not too difficult to navigate, even in the fog. Cairns were easy to spot and the boulder fields not too tedious. 

I hung my bag from a tree and had no issues with any mice, or other wildlife, getting into my food. 

When I woke up the next morning at 6am I was delighted to see clear skies and the most beautiful sunrise with an inversion layer! What a change from the fog that stayed until at least 4am.

This place is a Pika wonderland. Pika are everywhere and I could hear them through the night meeping!