[The two teens, ages 18 and 19]... left at 7 a.m. yesterday for a hike and swim. When they didn’t return last night, their parents reported them missing.
King County Search and Rescue and the sheriff’s office are looking for the hikers, who are described as inexperienced.
--Seattle Times (7-1-13)
Gosh, a mysterious disappearance in the Washington wilderness. I'd been looking for a hiking destination this weekend, so why not Mason Lake? Like Sherlock Holmes, charging off to Baskerville Hall? "The game is afoot!"
(Spoiler: The boys were found, lost but well, the following day. But, I'd made my decision. Mason Lake it would be. The show must go on!)
Mason Lake is about six miles west of Snoqualmie Pass, north of (and high above) I-90. It lies about a half mile within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, which necessitates filling out an additional form at the trailhead. The trailhead parking area was jammed; the trail itself was busy, but not uncomfortably so.
The trail follows the grade of an old logging road for the first couple of miles -- steep, but smooth hiking through beautiful forest. At times, the trail seems less like a trail than an old lane in rural England, winding its way through overarching trees, leading to an unseen country estate. Then a narrower and even steeper trail takes off for the final mile to the lake.
The three-mile hike up took me an hour and a half -- a short hike, but a good workout. Getting lost on this trail would be like getting lost driving from Seattle to Tacoma on Interstate 5. But apparently, the two "inexperienced" young hikers decided to go beyond Mason Lake to explore another nearby lake. A decision easy enough to understand -- Mason Lake is surrounded by numerous other small lakes. Two of them -- in opposite directions -- lie within a mile's distance from Mason. Good trails appeared to lead on to these lakes, as well. Even if you got off the main trail, it would seem easy enough to return to it, especially with the crowds in the area.
Detective Jason Stanley said there are a lot of hikers in the area where the two went missing. This made the search more difficult.
“There are so many hikers up there, which may work against us,” Stanley said. “We haven’t found anything.”
I guess that out in the woods, anything can happen. But all's well that ends well. The two friends will have a story to tell on themselves in future years -- "Dude, like Search and Rescue was out all day looking for us, and then they helicoptered us out when they found us! It was soooo cool!"
As for me, I only wished I had a skateboard -- and knew how to use it. The lower two miles of trail was so smooth I could almost have skated all the way back down.
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