Don't let the sun deceive you...

Today Jason and I took advantage of the sunshine (we haven't seen much of it the last week or so) and played a little "hookie" from our jobs.  Everyone needs a little break here and there, right?

Our adventure today took us on a 5.25 mile roundtrip hike to Heather Lake.  Of course we left beautiful and sunny Everett and headed straight into the dark clouds.  Who would have thought that when the weatherman said "mountain showers" that they would actually be right! 

Our hike started off nice with a little sun peeking through the clouds, but soon the dark clouds rolled in and didn't want to leave.  We found ourselves hiking on some very challenging terrain into a very wooded and slippery forest.  I actually had thoughts of seeing bears and needing to use Jason's ever so handy "bear spray".  Don't worry...it wasn't needed on this trip!!  About 10-15 minutes into our hike though we found ourselves caught in a mini rain storm.  The rain slowly started to turn into mini soft hail balls.  What were we getting ourselves into?!  Thank goodness for always being prepared and having my handy dandy rain gear with me...it was nice to have!

Then just as I was starting to get down about the rain/hail, we came up to small patches of snow.  Those small patches started to become larger and larger.  This was NOT a good sign for what we could expect at Heather Lake!

Checking out the snow

Notice how the trail is becoming harder to see

Trying to capture a family moment in the snow

Well we continued to trek on with good spirits.  The trail became harder to see, but at least there were fresh footprints to help lead the way.  There was no way we were going to turn back after almost reaching our destination!!

A cool view of the snowy mountains from the trail

Who would have thought there would be snow!

Once we finally made it to Heather Lake, we lucked out and a little hole opened up for the sun.  We set up to eat our lunch in a nice little spot and enjoyed watching the rain come down on the lake, but not on us.  Such a crazy sight!!!

Our destination...Heather Lake

Darn...we always forget our tripod and have to use a rock

Jason and Coda at the lake

Me and Coda at the lake

After a great lunch, we decided to head on and try out the "boardwalk" around the lake.  It's supposed to be a .75 mile trail around the lake.  We knew there would be snow, but we saw two other people go for it and never saw them turn back, so we figured it was okay.  BIG MISTAKE (although I will admit it was a fun adventure)!!  We ended up having to trek through a couple feet worth of deep unstable snow (the boardwalk was way down under that snow)!  Coda wanted to run and was practically dragging Jason the entire way as Jason sank in the snow every few feet.  And I was just trying to be safe and walk slow, but still ended up slipping a few times.  For the most part we made it out dry, but maybe a little more grumpy than we would have been if we hadn't done the loop around the lake. (I wish I would have taken pictures in the real deep snow, but I had to seriously concentrate on my footing).

Jason and Coda making their way on the "better" part of the boardwalk

Just happy to have successfully made it around the lake in snow!

I don't usually like to admit things like this, but Jason was right about not doing the trail around the lake.  It WAS a little tough, but a good challenge never scared us.  And the worst part of all was that I made it completely around the lake without getting wet socks and then the second we get back on the trail, my shoe slips into a huge muddy mess and the mud soaked instantly into my shoe and I had to walk the entire hike back with a SOAKING WET AND MUDDY shoe and sock...fun!  BUT WE DID IT!!!!! (I think I will add that I ALWAYS bring an extra pair of socks on every hike, but since the sun was shining today I didn't think a second pair would be necessary.  Lesson learned...never let the sun deceive you!).