OUTDOOR AWARENESS

I was visiting my son in Seattle, and he suggested the Bridal Veil Falls and Lake Serene hike. This hike was highly rated, so I went for it. I left Seattle in the morning, taking I-90 and US-2 to the Lake Serene Trailhead. The hike roundtrip is only 5 miles, but involves a lot of elevation gain. The dense forest, with numerous wide pine trees made a very surreal green tunnel through the forest. As this is a well traveled trail, it was very well maintained and wide. I felt like I was nearly done when I reached the Bridal Veil Falls fork. This fork is where the challenge in this hike began. The topography is much steeper at this point, and to accommodate it, trail maintainers placed wooden step paths and even ladders to ascend. Ascending always adds more strain and this was challenging. The winding, ascending path went on for half an hour, but at the end it was worth it. The falls roared off the ledge and descended a great distance into a pool below. It was really beautiful, and although the sun really seems to shine in Seattle, it was pretty spectacular. I enjoyed a quick meal at the base of the falls to recharge, and then set out for Lake Serene.

The downward hike from Bridal Veil Falls was a lot easier, but I still needed to be cautious not to make a mistake. Very quickly, I was back at the junction with the Lake Serene Trail. Very quickly after rejoining the main trail, it too began to get much, much steeper. Again, the wooden step paths and ladders began to appear. I greatly appreciated their construction. Even so, it was an exhausting march to Lake Serene. Perhaps an hour transpired, and I reached Lake Serene. It was magnificent. Lake Serene is a dark turquoise lake surrounded by steep, solid, imposing granite. The size and verticality of the surrounding mountains against the dark color of the lake is wonderful. I just wanted to admire it. There is a wonderful rock projecting out into the lake that is perfect to eat a well-earned meal and enjoy the fantastic view. Pictures unfortunately didn’t do it justice, and it's my memories that I’ll need to retain. This is why we hike these things. Similar to the departure from Bridal Veil Falls, the descent from Lake Serene was a lot easier going down, but again needed to be careful not to make a careless mistake. Eventually, I reached the junction with Bridal Veil Falls and continued back to the trailhead. I encountered a couple who seemed unfamiliar with hiking. He commented that it was pretty hard, and I admitted, “you haven’t even gotten to the hard part yet”. Pretty quickly, I was back to the trailhead and then heading back to Seattle. I was back in Seattle before the end of the workday.