September 22, 2013, Bagley Lake Circumnavigation

With visions of new snow dancing in our heads, LaPaz and I headed to the end of Hwy. 542 to see what the snowfields above Bagley Lake held for September turns. We arrived after the requisite 3-hour drive from Edmonds, looked across the expanse of the lake, and spied those old familiar fields of glisse. In many years past, these expanses have saved our streaks on more than one occasion with some reasonably nice turns. Today we hoped this same luck would come our way. Alas...

With the cold front settling in on top of us and wind first from the west and then the east, we struck out to reach the snow. Hiking down from the visitors center along the south side of the lake, we marveled in the sights that only a mountain storm can provide for a lake. When we reached our appointed white room, we were met with snow, indeed; the kind that is really white and REALLY treacherous to cross without boot crampons. Fortunately, there was a small rock finger that had melted up from below the 'glacier', and we donned our fair sticks whilst laying them atop stone. This was so that we didn't step into our bindings only to have us squirt in one direction and the skis in another. Traversing this wide-open virtual portrait of heaven, we were able to squeeze out 50 feet of vertical drop over the course of about 150 yards. We were able to perform between 10 and 15 stem/survival/defensive turns each before reaching the end of our playground. As soon as our cold, rain-drenched fun had begun, it seemed that it was over. Oh; it really WAS over!

Since we'd completely gone the width of the NW end of the lake, we hit the trail on the north side and hiked our way back out to the visitors center. Along the way, we sampled some of the many ripe blueberries that previous hikers had left behind. Arriving back to the car to wring out our very wet 'waterproof' Gore Tex gear, we agreed that it had been, indeed, an excellent day of skiing. Perhaps it ranked up there in our personal 'Top 5 Worst Days Of Skiing' lists, but it was much  better than sitting at home doing chores! Thanks, Lara for month 191...