Since I’m going to be having cataract surgery this week (which means I will be down for a week or two) and because I didn’t get out last weekend, I wanted to make sure I got out this weekend. My goal was to get to a high country trail while they were still accessible – some are already snowed in. I came up with a few options and asked Kirk if he was interested in going. He said yes and on one of my replies I had a wild idea – a loop in the Rock Lakes basin. With the days being short and knowing there would be snow up there, I wasn’t sure if it was doable, but Kirk was game to give it a try. We came up with a Plan B in case we couldn’t get to the trailhead.

The plan was to start from the Shellrock lake trailhead and then take the long abandoned cutoff trail over to Cache Meadow (to cut off some distance). From Cache Meadow, we’d head north on the Grouse Point trail to the junction with the Serene Lake trail. We’d head down that to Serene Lake and then continue on thru the Rock Lakes basin and then up to Frazier Turnaround. From there, we’d head back up Grouse Point to the spot where the Shellrock Lake trail heads south back to where we started. I had estimated it was roughly a little over 9 miles (which was pretty close).

Since sunset was at 4:40, and the weather was supposed to get worse as the day wore on, we decided to get an extra early start. We headed out before 8. We drove up to the 5830 road and started the 5 miles to the trailhead. There was no snow on the road for a while. At some point we started seeing a bit of snow on the side of the road and then on the road, however there were tracks from prior trips. When we got to the 190 that headed up to Hideaway lake, the tracks stopped. We continued on and since the snow wasn’t too deep and it was firm (not sloppy), we had no trouble making it to the trailhead. This is what the 5830 road looked like right before the trailhead:

Objective 1 was satisfied! We were going to attempt this loop! The next concern of the day was getting it done before sunset. We knew we’d have to keep moving and make reasonably good time (which can be difficult in the snow), but we had a couple of options for reducing the loop as well as turning around and heading back the way we came if we didn’t hit our turnaround time. We were fortunate when we got to the trailhead it was sunny. It was cold (27 degrees), but sunny. The forecast said it was supposed to warm up and start raining/snowing later in the day.

We knew there would be snow – the question was how much would we encounter. The modeled snow depth map didn’t show too much snow, but it isn’t always correct. We brought our snowshoes in case it got too deep. We suited up and headed up the trail. The beginning of the Shellrock lake trail goes thru an old cut area so it is pretty exposed. There was probably 4-6″ of snow in this area – not too bad to walk in, especially since it was pretty firm. At one point, you get a nice view of the Shellrock Creek drainage:

We continued up the trail. Just past where the cut stopped and you go back into uncut territory (and enter the Roaring River Wilderness area), there is a long abandoned trail that heads west. The beginning of the trail has never been located, so you have to head uphill to find the trail, but once you find it, the trail is actually a pretty good trail, especially for being abandoned. We headed uphill and soon found the trail, which intersects the Grouse Point trail shortly before it hits Cache Meadow. We followed the trail – there were a few spots that were tough to follow in the snow but we did a good job following it. At some point the snow got deep enough that we decided to put on our snowshoes. We soon got to the junction with the Grouse Point trail and continued east. We soon arrived at Cache Meadow. Ollie was apparently hot, so he laid down to cool off. Thor apparently thought he found something under the snow and dug down – in this photo his head is completely below the snow – he is such a goof:

We walked over to the campsite/junction where there used to be a cabin – now there is just a fire ring and a sign saying “Cache Meadow”. This is where the Cripple Creek, Grouse Point and Cache Meadow trails all kind of converge. We looked around a little bit, but since we were trying to make time, we quickly headed north. Just past the campsite, you get a nice look at one of the larger meadows at Cache Meadow, which was all frozen:

The trail follows the meadow(s) and once at the end of the meadows there is a very confusing junction – it was even tougher in the snow. We initially took the wrong turn – we would have gone down the Cache Meadow trail back to the 4635 road. We missed an indistinct junction where the Grouse Point trail headed north. After a bit of head scratching and searching we found it and continued north. At this point, the trail started climbing. Once you get up on top, the trail follows the ridge along the South Fork Roaring River, eventually heading up to Grouse Point, down across the Roaring River and up the other side. We obviously weren’t going that far today. We were taking it to the point where the Serene Lake trail intersected it and then heading down to the lake.

The climb out of Cache Meadow was difficult. There were a few spots where we scratched our heads about where the trail went, but for the most part, it is pretty well blazed trail and that helped a lot to keep us on track. We eventually made it up to the top where the trail flattened out. We started walking along the ridge. We saw quite a few bear prints up here. Down lower we saw lots of deer prints, some elk prints, rabbit and birds, but high up there was a bear roaming around. It was kind of cool.

We soon got to the “helispot” – an area that had been cut years ago as a place to land a helicopter. There are a variety of these places around the district but they haven’t been used in many years. The trees are starting to grow up but they are still pretty small, so there was probably 3′ of snow in this area. Once you got back into the trees there was probably 12-18″ of snow most places.

This is what the Helispot looked like – just a bunch of snow with little trees:

You get a really nice view of Serene Lake from this viewpoint:

While we were up there Thor took the opportunity to play in the deep fluffy snow:

Since the snow was so deep here, we kind of lost the trail but I had a track and we soon found it back in the woods. We continued on towards the junction with the Serene Lake trail. Along the way, I was telling Kirk about another old way trail that intersected this trail that headed back down to 4635. Dave had told me about it several years ago and I investigated it. It isn’t quite a complete trail since it encountered a clearcut which wiped out a portion of the trail, but much of it is still intact. We were able to see where it headed south from the Grouse Point trail which was kind of neat.

We continued on and shortly encountered the junction with the Serene Lake trail:

We didn’t stop here long – I think it was in here somewhere that I estimated we were about halfway thru the trip. We were doing OK time wise, but it was close and we weren’t sure what conditions we’d encounter later. We started down the trail to Serene Lake. It switchbacks down the hill and then takes a mostly level path on the west side of a big rockslide (which is above the west side of Serene Lake) and then goes around the nose of the rockslide and then heads down to Serene Lake. The sign at the junction said it was a mile down the lake. I hadn’t been here in a number of years but I didn’t think it was that long (but it is). Since it was about lunch time, we were planning to head down to the lake and eat at the campsites on the west side of the lake. There are one or two picnic tables there which would be nice.

After a short jaunt down the hill, we got to Serene Lake:

The weather was changing and there was a cold wind blowing from the east which made those campsites on the west side of the lake VERY cold. We decided to continue around the lake and hopefully find a more sheltered spot on the east side of the lake to have lunch. At some point on the way down the hill, Kirk had opted to take his snowshoes off. I hadn’t realized it until we were all the way down. I still had mine on.

We walked around the lake, across the outlet of the lake and soon got back into the woods. We found a reasonably sheltered spot with a log which is where we decided to eat lunch. We ate a quick lunch and I took off my snowshoes since the snow was not very deep. It is faster moving without the snowshoes, plus it makes it a lot easier to get over downed logs.

We continued east and at one point we got a nice view of the South Fork Roaring River:

We continued east. There wasn’t much snow on most of the trail – in some spots the trail was mostly bare except for some ice. There were a few spots where the trail got flooded like this:

We continued around and soon came to the junction to the lower rock lake. Since we were still fighting the clock, we decided to skip seeing that and continue. A bit farther, we got to the junction to the middle and upper rock lakes and again, we decided to skip it for time. We continued around and made our way uphill, finally arriving at Frazier Turnaround:

I think at this point it was something like 2:00. We had a goal of being back at the truck by 4:00 since sunset was 4:39 and I really didn’t want to drive on the snowy roads in the dark if I didn’t have to. We didn’t stop there too long and then continued up the Grouse Point trail, which at this point is an old road that has been converted to a trail. I was thinking the Shellrock Lake trail wasn’t very far, but it was quite a bit farther up the trail than I remembered. We were getting pretty tired at this point and the additional uphill was tough.

We finally got to the junction with the Shellrock lake trail and headed south. The beginning wasn’t too bad, but we got into a few more open spots where the snow was over a foot deep. We hadn’t put our snowshoes back on and we really didn’t want to because we made better time without them. Fortunately, the forest got thicker and the snow thinned out a bit. We headed down the rocky hill and soon found ourselves at Shellrock Lake:

Shellrock lake is a very long lake – the south end of it was frozen but most of it was not. We looked around a bit and then continued south. It felt like it took a long time to get to the end of the lake! After the lake the trail starts to head back up a bit before it hits the cut area. When we got to the spot where he had headed uphill at the beginning of the day, we had finally completed our loop. We were close to the truck and knew we would be fine, timewise.

We soon got to the cut area, and from that spot on, the rest of the trip was all downhill! As we were heading down the trail, it started snowing a fair amount. The day started out sunny, and then it got cloudy, and we had a couple of very light snow showers at different points, but it was mostly dry. This last bit of snowfall was heavier and wetter than anything we had had:

We made it back to the truck before 4:00. By that time it was snowing pretty good. It was a pretty wet snow. It had warmed up during the day and it was right around freezing, maybe a bit above. We packed up our stuff and got in the warm truck with heated seats (which felt REALLY good). We made it almost back to Estacada before sunset. We stopped at Time Travelers for dinner to celebrate our epic day in the woods.

I can’t explain why, but this trip, for me, was just an incredible day. All my hiking days are great but this was just “better”. It was a strenuous trip, but it was so cool to see all these areas in the snow. It is always funny to see Thor in the snow too. I’m really glad we were able to do this trip in its entirety – it truly was an epic day!