Mason Lake
Date: November 13, 2015
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 6.5 Miles / 10 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,550 Feet / 777 Meters
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Exit 45, I-90
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass
Trail Conditions: Wet to Very Wet
Hiking with: Jim Darmiento, Rick Massie and my faithful dog Macho

During the summer you are lucky to find a parking spot at the Ira Spring trailhead, but we were the only brave souls to utilize our rain gear on this blistery rainy morning. This was my first time in 10 years to see only our car in the parking lot all day…it was just weird.

Wet and damn wet. That pretty much describes our saturated hike to Mason Lake www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/ira-spring-memorial. We started off determined to summit Bandera Mountain, but when we came to the split to Mason Lake or Bandera my good friends Jim Darmiento and Rick Massie voted for the less exposed and the more sheltered type route to the lake.

If it wasn’t for the new bridge across Mason Creek, this would have been a short roundtrip hike of 1.6 miles. The creek was raging and it was dangerously impossible to cross without the bridge. We finished this hike with a bowl of Jambalaya and a proper pint of Mac & Jacks www.macandjacks.com at the North Bend Bar & Grill www.northbendbarandgrill.com.

On the drive back to Seattle, Jim Darmiento and I decided to stop at Snoqualmie Falls, the falls were rampant and furious due to the substantial precipitation in the last few days.