Gold Cord Lake

 Finally a beautiful sunny day! I couldn't decided what to do today. I loaded my kayak into my car and also brought my hiking boots. Sometimes when I'm totally undecided like this, I just put everything in my car and start driving until I seem to end up somewhere. It was really cold, only about 33 degrees when I left home. I just felt too chilly to consider getting wet and getting into the water. I drove up to Hatcher Pass, thinking maybe I would hike one of the trails. But nothing seemed to catch my interest. Once I got all the way to the upper parking lot, I just decided to start walking. The sun was really bright up there, especially since everything was covered in snow. The gate is closed to the mine so if I wanted to get up there I needed to walk a mile or so up the closed road. I started up, wondering if it would be possible to find the trail up to Gold Cord Lake. By now it was of course snow-covered. When I reached the trailhead, I saw that others had walked there so the trail was obvious. I had my spikes on because I knew things could get very icy up higher. I made it to the cabin easily and started up the steeper rocky section. The trail wasn't as heavily packed anymore but there were still footprints to follow. When I reached the steeper rocks, the trail stopped. I thought that might be the end of the line for me. But after looking around, I was able to figure out where the actual trail likely was. I started breaking trail and it became more and more obvious. Just before I reached the long obvious traverse, a dog ran past me. His owner was right behind me with a teenage boy. they finally passed me and we all made it to the lake. It was so spectacular up there. The lake is ice-covered but it doesn't look very thick yet. With the clouds and areas of fog and the sun reflecting off the ice, the whole place was magical. I'm so glad I decided to do this little 4 mile adventure. Everything is more amazing when covered in snow. Gold Cord Lake is one of my favorite places.

The lake is just over the ridge below the saddle in the middle of this picture