Pete Lake, Roslyn

My dad and I have always wanted to go on a backpacking trip together, but by the time I had all my own gear (and could survive a hike more than 5 miles), we lived 560 miles apart. During my college years, we tried to plan a few trips that never ended up actually coming to fruition for various reasons, and we would decide to stay in lodges or AirBnBs (which was still super fun).

In June of 2022, we were finally all set to go: packed backpacks, time off work, trail chosen — and of course, I get a terrible cold three days before, so tearfully, we had to cancel and hope to reschedule later in the summer.

When July 2022 rolled around, we had new dates, re-packed backpacks, new flights — when we realized the original trail location (Mount Hood, Oregon) wouldn’t work because of the late-summer-smoke. So we quickly made the decision to head to the North Cascades where we found a little-known trail through the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to Pete Lake and beyond.

To get to Pete Lake, it’s an easy 4-mile hike from the Pete Lake trailhead in the small town of Roslyn, Washington. This lake is the starting point of several longer backpacking trails in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness near Snoqualmie Pass, and connects (though briefly) to the Pacific Coast Trail. But beware, you WILL be eaten by bugs along the way. After Pete Lake, we hiked through the very-much-vertical landscape to Spectacle Lake; where along the way, I fell off a log bridge into frigid rapids (but that story is are for another post).

Long story short, this is the lake where my dad and I started our first backpacking trip, so making this sticker was very special to me. It reminds me of uninterrupted catching up, exploring a new activity together, and him teaching me Cribbage (though, I swear he intentionally didn’t tell me all the rules just so he could win…).

The Pete Lake Sticker view is from the small little beach connected to the main Pete Lake campground, at sunset.