VTrail

Dream Lake (creak route)
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Dream Lake 2001 report
Dream Lake 2000 report

Distance:	1.45 miles one way
Hiking Time:	2.5 hours
Trailhead Elevation:	1700 ft
Elevation Gain:	1750 ft
Season:	July - October
Difficulty:	Strenuous
Rating:	Best - Very Good - Good - Fair
Maps:	USGS Snoqualmie Lake North Bend Ranger District Map Printable Topo Map	Buy Maps Online
Permits:	Northwest Forest Pass is required Alpine Lakes Wilderness Regulations

Trail:

August 12, 2000
Left the Taylor River parking lot around 7:25 AM and quickly made my way up the old road to Big Creek arriving at the concrete bridge around 8:45 AM. As usual, there were nice sized cutthroat swimming near the base of the falls, but I didn't bother and proceeded to find the route to Dream about 50 ft east of the creek. The trail started off a bit rough in what looked to be an old run-off channel, but quickly opened up into a pretty obvious way trail. I followed the trail strait up without much difficulty (other than the strain on my achilles--must have been the running shoes) never straying far from the sounds of the creek. For a way trail it's in great shape, no brush to speak of and really only one blowdown that I had to crawl under. I followed the trail up for about a half-mile (maybe less) to where it drops towards the creek through a short patch of nettles and thorns. Once near the creek I rounded a large rock to the right and came to some open trees and a fairly obvious campsite. Past the campsite, the trail begins to fizzle in a maze of open trees, and then ends altogether in a massive thicket of slide alder and Devil's Club, we got to experience this in June, absolute horror! Near the rock and campsite I changed into my felt soled "rock-hoppers" and prepared for the hop, skip, and jump all the way to Dream Lake.

Dropped down a small ledge into the creek bed and was happy to see that the raging torrent we'd seen in late June was now a very manageable "trickle" amongst the large rocks. Off I went making great time from rock to rock, really no need to even get wet. After a couple hundred yards I came to a bit of a fork, one with water, the other one looked dry. I chose the more open route up the dry channel to the left where I found my speed getting faster and faster. The challenge of making the next rock on a hop drove me further and further into the heart of the nastiness we had tried so hard to fight our way through in June. The dry channel (and it is completely dry)

ends after another couple hundred yards (maybe a bit more) where I came to another fork, one to the left that's dry and one to the right that's got some water. I chose to ascend via the water route, which quickly became a wee bit tighter than what I had just come up

. More trees and shrubs hanging over the creek, but still very doable. Up I went through the creek until I came to a nice band of cliffs and polished rock at 2900'. Now it was decision time, left, right or strait. The steepness of the terrain and super-dense brush to the right did not look overly inviting, so that was out. I explored the strait option pretty thoroughly, but it was the main creek channel and it was nothing more that a steep, slimy waterslide--even if I had made it up somehow a slip looked potentially fatal, forget it. Left it was, up the small creek coming down the hillside from the west (easily seen on your topo map). A bit of a scramble up some steep rock, but nothing brutally hard. I got some nice elevation out of it and it was easy, open travel. I climbed a bit (~150') and then decided to exit to the right and traverse upward and over to the main channel. More of those small, dense freakin cedar trees, I loathe nothing more! Took me a lot longer than expected just to make that traverse, but eventually I made it, scratched to all heck, but in one piece. More rock hopping (in some cases rock climbing) brought me up to the more gradual slopes at about 3200' where I exited from the creek and proceeded in a northerly direction through moderately thick brush to about 3400'. Some sorta steep slopes line the lake shore to the south, so I switched out of my river shoes and back into my big, burly Addidas. Made the last push up and then down a bit to the lake shore, elevation 3451', 2 1/4 hours from the old road.

The lake and shores were completely snow free

. Noticed a single campsite just to the west of the outlet complete with fire ring and pseudo register. After lunch I headed west around the lake, easy travel at first but it gets more difficult...fished as I went, but it wasn't easy with the brush hampering my back-cast. As I walked I took notice of the terrain around the lake and the possibility for further explorations. A through hike to Gouging Lake? I wouldn't do it. Very, very steep country to the north and west of the lake. Those chasms (extending in significance to about 4800') coming down from the NW look downright awful! The vertical rock wall

to the north of the lake was truly a spectacular sight, but nothing I would ever tangle with. I'd have to try it to really know, but Smith Lake would be a difficult lake to bag from the south, definitely a hard-core trek.

Made my way to the NW shore near the grassy island where I lounged about, and then headed back toward the logjam where the fishing seemed to be better than anywhere else on the lake. After some more food and fishing I headed east along the south shores. Very brushy through here and not all that easy to get anywhere fast. Along the way I found a couple nice rock out-croppings from which to cast, but finally packed up the fishing gear. I had wanted to hit Pothole on my way out, but decided to pass because by the time I was ready to move out it was already 6 PM! "Oh how splendid...more way trails in the dark."

So, I hurried down the mountain heading SW towards the outlet. I had no intentions of crossing over this time, my plan was to stay to the east of the outlet and exit the brush for the creek bed at about 2900', just below the cliffs I had avoided on the way in. Moderately thick brush to 3200', typical stuff--berries, etc.

At 3200' it gets steep and slide alder makes its presence known. I managed to get lucky and find some small gully type things that took me down pretty quickly avoiding the worst of the brush (this would still be a pretty time consuming route if you decided to come up this way). Down I went, navigating off the landscape I had made mental pictures of on the way in until I knew I was where I needed to be. I took a sharp turn to the NW at roughly 2900'and headed down an insanely steep slope where I brush-repelled down to Big Creek, ending up about 75' south of the cliffs, whew! A quick change of shoes and I was off down the rocks, back to the trail, and finally back on the road at 7:45 PM. Started off walking, but found after 3/4 of a mile I still had some kick left in me. Ended up jogging back to the car finally arriving ten minutes to 9.

Contributed by Randy Busch