Schaefer Lake — Saturday, Jul. 30, 2005

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - East

Our group of five backpackers, Linda, Teresa, Lee, Howard and myself headed to the east side of the Glacier Peak Wilderness for a 3 day weekend up at Schaefer Lake off the Chiwawa River Road. About a 1/4 mile from the trailhead is the river crossing, either via the logjam or fording. We decided to just wade the river, which felt pretty good on a hot day. Once on the other side, we scouted around for the horse trail, which took some time since it was really over grown with brush. It connects up with the hiker trail in about 200 yards down stream. Even the hiker trail was over grown on the lower section before the trail starts switchbacking up the hill side. There were several creeks along the way to cool ourself off on the hike up to the lake. The blueberry bushes already had berries for the picking. We stopped at the Schaefer Creek before getting to the lower lake for some drinking water, then on up to the bigger lake below Mt. Sylvester. Once up at the lake, at 5,131', we found a good camp spot on the southeast shore of the lake. With clear skies, we could see a zillion stars after the sun went down. On Saturday Lee and I headed up above the lake on the north side to find the trail that heads to D Lake. I had been to it back in 1989. We scouted around trying to find were it left the lake, but couldn't find it, so we just headed up to the ridge where I remembered the trail was located. We switched back up the hill side following game trails. When we did get up to the top of the ridge, there was the old trail. We followed it westerly into a nice meadow area with a small creek. Where the creek drops down a waterfall to D Lake, we could see the lake far below. This was the area I had camped at in '89. After hiking this rough trail again, I wondered how I had carried a 60 pound pack up there 16 years ago. We had lunch at a good view spot where we could see a couple people fishing in D Lake, plus views out to Mt. Maude and Seven Fingered Jack. After some photos we headed back to Schaefer Lake in the afternoon. The other three in the group had done some exploring around the two Schaefer Lakes and went for a swim under hot sunny skys. Sunday morning we headed out about 7:30 am. Stopped along the way at a couple creeks for some cooler water to pour over my head. The river crossing on the way back felt great after the hike down from the lake. The water was only up to our knees. After changing clothes at the trail head, it was off to the 49er Dinner at Coles Corner for lunch on the way home. The group had a fun time seeing a new area of the mountains.