Ira Spring Trail - Mason Lake — Tuesday, May. 12, 2026

First hike of the season! Also my first time to Mason Lake - I've done Bandera a bunch, but since the beargrass wasn't blooming yet I wasn't motivated to do the climb, and thought a peaceful alpine lake would be nice. It was! Also, the view to Rainier is such a welcome friendly hug. 

I wanted to be in the North Cascades, but I was leery about driving (good lord, gas prices!) all the way from Seattle for iffy conditions and I kind of wanted to warm up the joints a little before testing them on something like Welcome Pass. So the I-90 corridor it was!

I don't love the first 1.5 miles of this hike. Every time I start it I think, nah, don't need to do this again. But then you get up there, and Rainier is smiling at you, and you forget that first kinda boring part because it only took an hour in the car, no serious forest road driving, and a well-groomed trail to deliver you to wilderness!

People will join you on this trail. But at least today, everyone was rather mellow and dispersed. I passed a ton of adorable dogs on the trail (some unleashed....leash them, my friends. I enjoy a furry 4-legged hiker, but some hikers are legit afraid of even cute well behaved dogs!). Also people. But I did find a lovely rock by Mason Lake and spent an hour (around 10:30am) seeing and hearing no one. 

Someday I may backpack in and push on to all the other nifty lakes, but for now this is just a great shaking-off-the-dust trail from the winter, and inspiration for future hikes. 

If you go - at the viewpoint to Rainier just before the trail heads down to the lake - on a stone facing Rainier is a plaque honoring Ira Spring. You can't see it from the trail. It's a lovely memorial to a local hero, and a good reminder that trails take hard work and advocacy!