Soda Peaks Lake — Friday, Sep. 2, 2011

Southwest Washington > Lewis River Region

Lovely medium-size lake with great views on the way in. We took the western approach, and the trailhead was difficult to find. From Carson WA, it's 30+ minutes on a back road, which briefly turns unpaved and then becomes paved again. Drive until there is a 3-way fork in the road. The turn off for the hike is on the right and the actual trailhead is quite hidden in the bushes on the right. This is the shorter route in, and the hike in was longer than 2 miles advertised with all the switchbacks. It was indeed quite steep, but was enjoyable and definitely the views were great. You'll see Mt Adams quite clearly on the left, and Rainer is somewhat visible but often obscured by trees. At the high point, as you are walking along the ridge, glimpses of Hood may be seen on the right. There seem to be only 6 campsites here. 3 obvious ones to the left as you reach the lake, two of which are big enough for a larger tent or for 2-3 small tents. The other 3 sites are along the right side of the lake, and the trail to get there is not obvious at all. It's part trail, part bushwhacking, but if you stick close to the lake, you'll find the other 3 spots. So go mid-week, or arrive early. Skeeters were present but not terrible (Labor Day). There were flies and apparently some of them bite. There were also ticks. We used the natural bug spray (lemon eucalyptus) and it worked fine for keeping all the bugs off. There were lots of huckleberry bushes, and some of them had berries, if you looked off the trail. The lake has crawdads in the shallow waters. The water was clear and lovely, not as cold as you would expect, but still chilly. September is an excellent time of the year for swimming. We saw about 6 happy dogs. 2 nearby parties had children who were crying/whining, which was quite audible across the lake and obviously they couldn't just put the kid in the car. Plus, this is a very difficult hike in for kids, though there were several teens who seemed to enjoy it.