Independence Lake to North Lake. First overnight hike for my 13 year old son. I probably should have reconsidered. Lots of up and down. Trail to Independence Lake a cake walk. Independence Lake shows use because of easy access. Trail over divide to North Lake is a steep 1,000+ ft elevation grind in 1.3 miles. Does a body good. The 700+ ft descent from pass to lake is fast and furious. North Lake sits an a beautiful bowl with one, I repeat, one flat camp site. It so happens that the previous party decided to use this flat area for defecation. Could it be that they live in a double wide trailer? The previous party also decided to clean their trout and throw the guts into the lake. If I was going to teach my son how not to leave a campsite, this was the campsite. We had a beautiful summer day followed by a grey, autumn drizzly morning. Walk Clean!

Looking through the mountaineers book, Lord Berry and myself (Lord Greenwood) were deciding between Perry Creek/Mt. Forgotten and North Lake. We chose North Lake, and we weren't disappointed. The trail to Independence lake, about 1 mile in, is in great shape with only a couple blow downs to note. On the way back, there was a huge group with kids, since this short, gentle, rolling trail is ideal for children and families. Independence lake is small to medium size, with a nice agate color. There's no snow to Independence lake, but there is a patch upon rounding it en route to the North Lake trail. Just stick close to the lake and you'll find the trail midway up a snowfield on the right. The trail to North Lake is a switchbacking one, but it is just beautiful with flowers and heather slopes. Might be a bit hot for some, but the 80 degree sun felt just fine for us. After about a mile snow becomes a bit more of an issue, but with some caution and reasoning most hikers will easily follow the trail. We made a little diversion exploring the tarns that are around 1 3/4 miles from Independence Lake. These are still iced over, and surrounded by snow, but they are beautiful right now. They sit in a nice little basin with scoured cliffs around and nice views of the valley below. We ended up spending too much time at the tarns, and picked our way towards North Lake, which is still 80 percent ice covered. The route down to the lake is snow covered and would best be accomplished with an ice axe. Given the snow conditions and how much we'd enjoyed the hike up to this point, we made the decision to turn around and make it a point to return later this summer. A great, underrated hike!

The trail description mentions there is only one camp site at this lake however, after scouting around, I found several others. As you approach the lake at the end of the trail you will find two or three sites to the right (East) in the clump of tall evergreen trees. There are also several scattered through out the rock field to the left (West). Although they were not spacious they looked large enough to accomodate a one or two person tent. The trail description also mentioned the false side trail leading to some tarns. I was fooled by this too. After wandering around among the ponds I back tracked and found the real trail leading up to the ridge through a rock feild. The false trail is very distinct and the real trail is rather indistinct at the junction. That is what fooled me. Fish in the lake were feeding on insects but it was hard to tell how large they were. A very nice destination. The surrounding mountains and cliffs were pretty impressive. It was fun to watch the shadows climb the rock faces at sunset.

A nice trail and not too hot for the 1200 foot gain in 1.2 miles from Independence Lake. When I first reached the ridge above Independence Lake I walked left up the ridge to get a better view, rewarded by Mt. Baker and Three Finger. Up the ridge and then coming down to North Lake the view of Glacier Peak was great.

My son and I needed to get out for some mt fresh air and maybe do some fishing. The trail was in good shape up past independence lake, then got a bit steeper up to the saddle , great views baker to thr north, glacier pk to the east, big 4 to the south , whitehorseand 3fingers to the west. A good ""hill"" going down to north lake. we ended up catching 2 fish each which were released , all cutts, up to 13 "" Great hike, Just 3 hours in and 3 out.