Tank Lakes, Gold Lake, Big Snow Mountain, Chetwoot Lake, Williams Lake, La Bohn Gap, Middle Fork Snoqualmie River, Mount Hinman & Myrtle Lake — Sunday, Sep. 21, 2025

No trip report Tim dragged me around the mountains this week for a 4 night extravaganza.

Starting on 9/17. Trail up to Myrtle was nice. Routefinding up to big snow lake and Snowflake Lake wasn't bad. However, carin's were very sparse. camped at Snowflake, lots of of fish in big snow lake.

Day 2 started with a steep ascent of Big Snow Mountain following talus and creek beds. Pretty strenuous, but not too bad. At this point Carin's are more of something to stumble upon then to follow. grabbed the summit, which was about the smokiest elevation around, and headed down to Gold Lake and the 4 or 5 tarns above it, this took much longer than anticipated. Plenty of fish here as well.
After a quick dip we head north to wrap around Wild Goat Peak to Chetwood Lake on some seldom walked talus. Very wild drainage area, and very intense. We loop around the Southside of Chetwood with headlamps on steep talus and make camp near its east shore.

Day 3 is, surprise, more talus! much more traveled, though, which was nice. Routefinding becomes easier, but the terrain remains absolutely wild. we stop at iron cap lake for some water and to soak up its mesmerizing silty blue beauty. From here we head to the Tank Lakes where we saw multiple parties camping. some of the first people we've seen in 3 days. after some water we drop down fast into the end of the Necklace Valley and then up the last steep push to the La Bohn Lakes where we make canp. We decide Mount Hinman is a bit much for our tired toes, so we leave it for another trip. Saw some weird string of lights in the sky that I'll have to look up later. Hanging a food bag here is pretty laughable so an actual bear bag is recommended.

Day 4 starts with us finalizing our decision to bail on Hinman and we walk steep talus to Williams Lake. Some awesome mining history just above that we spent an hour or so checking out.
From Williams we have an actual trail so we turn the speed up and make it to the end of the forest service road that heads up the middlefork and camp at a major hub on the river.

Day 5 is just a wet road hike. the rain started around 5am and didn't let up until around noon so we walked out with soggy feet.

Over all a killer trip. No trip report Tim gives it a 9/10 for difficulty in our current shape. I'd have to agree.