Because the weather was looking pretty good, a few friends and I decided to do our annual winter camping trip this weekend. We normally go to Holmes Lake because the hike is short and easy, but decided to try Chase Lake this year instead.
A few years ago I went to Chase Lake in the summer and it was a pretty flat and easy hike. On Saturday it was still flat, but six inches of fresh snow covered the trail so it wasn't quite as easy as I remembered. As long as we stayed on the trail it was fine, but every time we went a foot in the wrong direction we ended up with snow past our knees. We didn't have snowshoes and while they would have helped, it only took us 90 minutes to cover the 2.7 miles with our packs, so it wasn't bad.
The leanto was in good shape and the view to the lake was better than I remembered. 5 people came by for day hikes (all with snowshoes) but none hung around for too long. A nice couple from Utica cooked some hotdogs and talked with us for a while.
The weather really turned out to be perfect. It probably didn't go below 20 until after we went to bed, and the were light flurries on and off. The lake looked nice, we found a few trees to cut up for firewood, and had a good night just hanging out. In the morning we had some breakfast and picked up and hiked out. The hike out was faster than the hike in, but that's probably because of the clearly established path we followed. We lost a bit of time on the way in trying to figure out where to cross streams without getting too wet.
Overall a great place to spend a night or do a day hike to. Some pics are here.
A few years ago I went to Chase Lake in the summer and it was a pretty flat and easy hike. On Saturday it was still flat, but six inches of fresh snow covered the trail so it wasn't quite as easy as I remembered. As long as we stayed on the trail it was fine, but every time we went a foot in the wrong direction we ended up with snow past our knees. We didn't have snowshoes and while they would have helped, it only took us 90 minutes to cover the 2.7 miles with our packs, so it wasn't bad.
The leanto was in good shape and the view to the lake was better than I remembered. 5 people came by for day hikes (all with snowshoes) but none hung around for too long. A nice couple from Utica cooked some hotdogs and talked with us for a while.
The weather really turned out to be perfect. It probably didn't go below 20 until after we went to bed, and the were light flurries on and off. The lake looked nice, we found a few trees to cut up for firewood, and had a good night just hanging out. In the morning we had some breakfast and picked up and hiked out. The hike out was faster than the hike in, but that's probably because of the clearly established path we followed. We lost a bit of time on the way in trying to figure out where to cross streams without getting too wet.
Overall a great place to spend a night or do a day hike to. Some pics are here.
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