Backpacking the Enchantments (Snow Lake Permit): Rain and beautiful lakes!

we are here to check off a major major bucket list item top of the list nothing has gone right on this trip we're gone as we had thought on this trip yeah at all it's an exciting day here we are back in our former home state of Washington and it feels so good to be back I'm so happy we spent the last couple of days in Spokane checking out the city we went to a few coffee shops and we hung out with a few friends and went apple and peach picking and it was so much fun it was a blast we made an apple pie in a peach crisp and with some ice cream of course and it was delicious shout out and big thank you to Emily and Mary hosting us and showing us around y'all are the best we had so much fun with you [Music] [Music] we are now in Leavenworth Washington which is one of our favorite places in Washington this little bavarian village right by the mountains just super cute you almost feel like you've been transported to Europe we actually did a vlog on Leavenworth a while back so we'll link to that below if you have yet to see it definitely check it out we came here and last time at Christmas which is so magical yeah it's awesome but this time we are here for a very very special reason we are here to check off a major major bucket list item top of the list that we've had ever since we moved here to Washington and it's a very difficult hike to do and to get access to with the permits and all that jazz but it is called the enchantments so for the next three days we're gonna be backpacking with four friends all through the enchantments and we'll cover a little bit more about the hike and how we got permits later but we were just so so excited however we have no idea what to expect we heard it's hard we saw in the forecast it may rain oh it may snow and it's gonna be really cold so yeah it's gonna be a really interesting next few days we have no idea what to expect no vlog but we really really wanted to document it to share it with all of you because it's just such a big exciting thing for us to go do but we have yet to eat dinner or pack and we have a very early wake-up call so we're gonna get going but we'll see you in the morning yeah all right it's 6:00 a.m. we are bright-eyed and bushy tail we are driving to Stuart and Cole Chuck Lake trailhead to meet half of our group there's two trail heads that you can start from so we're gonna take the van to one of them and then our friends are gonna drive us to the other one and that's where we'll start and girls this is our crew for the weekend we have Jeffrey Avant Christy the woman of the weekend and Jackson so a little bit of backstory on this hike in 2018 I don't know the 2019 stats 17,500 people applied for permits in this area the hike called the core zone which is supposedly the most beautiful part there's tons of lakes and it's just it's more central - so it's like the best spot to stay in it only 700 something people got them so it's like four percent or so it's really really competitive so four of us so Yvonne Jeffrey me Adam we all tried to get permits we all got denied and then Cristy like the last day that the permits were open decided to apply for six permits and we ended up getting permits for the Snow Lake area which is kind of on like it's on one end of the hike so what does mean and it's a less competitive area to get permits for which is how we got lucky so what this means though is we're still gonna hike the entire enchantments but we're doing it in three days and today we're hiking to Snow Lake which is where we can actually sleep so with our permit we can only sleep in Snow Lake and then tomorrow we'll do some day hikes in the core area and then hike back to camp at Snow Lake then the last day we'll hike all the way through so we're still gonna be able to experience the entire enchantments it's just not as ideal to sleep in Snow Lakes versus the court but we're extremely lucky and happy to have gotten permits and I think it's gonna be like 26 miles total instead of 18 some people who don't get permits do the entire hike in one day they start at one end finish at the other and either like parked cars on each end or take the shuttle that takes them back to the other one but that seemed like a lot so we're really excited to spend three days here we're like 1.6 miles in so far so good score and some wildlife we walked up to some mountain goats it is our first time ever seeing mountain goats but we hear they can be a little mean [Music] we're about six ish to a dish miles in something like that we've gone up a couple thousand feet and the first few miles are kind of boring to me but now it's like starting to get really beautiful because we're finally at the first lake we come to which is not a lake yes I think I think we're like six miles in but we have to go at eight miles total today to snow lake but apparently it's not going to gain much more elevation so we're getting a nice little break with the madness yeah and it's beautiful there's this dam that's just like yeah yeah it is crazy it's like a waterfall on steroids [Music] we made it to our home for the night eight miles down 16 to go we set up our tent and this is our view not too shabby [Music] so as we mentioned yesterday the weather was not gonna be ideal this weekend starting to rain a little bit it's really really windy and I'm cold it's an exciting day here it's windy and kind of chilly and we're wimps yeah so we're hanging out in the tent for a bit no I'll make dinner sounds so exciting yeah we're just chilling it's nice stuff is my shoulders hurt yeah everything here so it's nice just chill we download some Netflix in case we get bored or if it's rainy we can't be outside mm-hmm so one thing to know is you can't have campfires at this elevation so no fires for us which means we're gonna be cold I would be clutch right now but it's ok the only thing I'm concerned about is that this is not the coldest she's going to get yeah and I'm really cold and I'm wearing like four layers so that's okay we have left our cave to make some dinner and the best part is that it's so warm it's like a face in a hand warmer day one of the enchantments is in the books we're about eight miles in and our whole mission today was to get to Snow Lake to find a camping spot and I think we found a pretty sweet on huh awesome so we got here like 3:00 3:30 ish and so we had time to just kick it and relax so we made a not one but two backpacking meals each lunch and dinner three hours we earned it so it was a fun day but we're looking forward to tomorrow yeah so tomorrow is kind of like the big event so we want to go explore the core zone which is like the whole reason why we came here it's where all the beautiful lakes are so we're hoping that the weather holds up tomorrow is supposed to be Ike the worst weather day so hoping that it's just cloudy maybe a little rainy but not pouring like it is outside right but it's raining pretty hard we like got in a tent just in time yeah so it should be a beautiful day hopefully and if not we do get to go through the whole area on our last day we just are gonna be kind of booking it so we wanted to have like one day to like explore it slower so we'll see what happens but it should be fine but we're gonna go to bed because it's pouring and we want to try to get up for sunrise but we're not a hundred percent confident that there will be any Sun to rise so we will see just we cannot check it out it's a beautiful morning sike we've decided to suck up the rain and finally make some coffee and breakfast because we've been just chilling in the tent for a couple hours watching Netflix reading / napping which is fun it's nice and relaxing but I think we're getting a day start a little bored but we're not sure what our plan is for the day because it's raining it's lightening up now the view of the lake has cleared up a bit so I don't know maybe it'll get better looks really cool it's like slightly foggy super moody some Pacific Northwest feel so the rain may not be ideal but it's sure gonna be a memorable trip [Music] we have decided to brave the elements and go for a little walk just a few of us are going we're gonna try to go to the end of Snow Lake maybe head up to the core we don't really know we're just gonna see how we feel and how bad the weather gets don't have the proper rain gear so kind of getting wet every jacket shorts because I left like an extra layer of clothes in the tent so that they don't get soaked and I have something dry later when we get back so we'll see ill-prepared but whatever this isn't this isn't the enchantments experience we visualized in our head but it's very memorable and it is fun and who knows maybe tomorrow will be better [Music] we are about to walk up to our first lake in the enchantment hike the terrains even change it's way less like Foresti yeah a lot more rocky which is what we envisioned when we think of the enchants yeah this is what you come to see what we're about to enter into I'm excited the rain stopped so you can actually see a few things logs kind of clearing out is still kind of lingering so it looks pretty cool yeah so this is Lake Vivian the first Lake if you're heading heading in from Snowy yeah whoa it's crazy cuz you walk up like this huge hill and like you don't expect there to be just a lake like like right here you think they dig down more yeah no we just climbed up this giant like whoo holder not Boulder but very rocky yeah terrain yeah one of my favorite things about fall in the Pacific Northwest are the larches that turn that they're yellow in the fall that's so beautiful and there's some over there that are starting to change so hoping as we go through the core area more which I think we're doing tomorrow we're so kind of working out all of our plans but I'm hoping we see more because it's so beautiful oh yeah this is definitely fall weather it's a tad chilly I know some people who came here last weekend and they got like sunburns they weren't sure it's very sunny it's a very different experience than just a week ago [Music] the planet okay so I thought the lenses or the mirror inside the camera was foggy or something so I took the lens off and this was too close to the edge of the lens and it slipped off and slipped into the water and it was hanging out there down on the rock and Yvonne save the day and scrambled down there with a stick and I was like oh my gosh the waters gonna like push it off further down I'm gonna lose it's gonna be worse and then it came up I'm just very glad that it was not the lens that fell in the water that would have sucked and thank God for a Vaughn for going to get it for us [Music] so when we were up at the lake the camera died the battery just got too cold I guess but anyways we turned around at that point anyways because hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little bit better and we wanted to save the rest of it for the better better weather yeah I was getting really windy and cold the camera was like I'm done and we were like we're done - so our plans have kind of changed for tomorrow so originally we were going to backpack in to Snow Lake yesterday but all day today exploring the core area then tomorrow hiked all the way out through the core down Asghar pass by coal truck lake and exit that way however we saw a park ranger and a funny story about that we forgot our permits at first and we turned around like a third of a mile in to get our permits and thank God we did cuz we actually got stopped by at least stopped us and asked us showed um everything was cool and we're not sure if like we needed like the group leader with us it was it was no big deal so yeah we're really glad we went back for those so note always bring your have your permit whether you're at like a day hiker or overnight they give them some sort of permit they're gonna ask but when we talked to him he was like yeah we got some wet weather and he said so yes I'm pretty confident snowing asgaard pass right now I would not recommend going down it tomorrow even though it might not the weather might be fine tomorrow it could like be icy or slick and he's like it's already really hard it's kind of like a slab at first to go down he's like if that's I see it's gonna with packs on its going to really yeah then it's just like rocks and dirt and but really steep and he said it takes them two hours to get down with this pack in really good condition so no telling how long or how treacherous it would be for us we actually haven't explained asgaard pass yet so that is like kind of one of the things this hike isn't known for besides like the corrent core lakes and stuff it's 2,000 feet change in elevation so if you're going down it's 2,000 feet down if you're going up 2,000 feet up in three-quarters of a mile so not even in a mile so everyone says it's so so so hard even just without backpacks so with like date like full-on 30 pound backpacks oof so because he didn't scare us but he kind of made us rethink our plan a bit so our plan now is we went to the first Lake today we're gonna hopefully leave camp at five in the morning tomorrow with just the day packs that we have go all the way through or most the way through the core area until a scar pass or maybe a little bit before turn around come back set like pack up our camp area hopefully buy a one or two ish yeah and then leave out of snow Lakes go away we came it's kind of a bummer we don't get to go down a scar passed because I feel like it's like it's like a badge of honor kinda yeah like you truly got the true experience yeah like you it feels like you didn't really do the whole enchantments if you didn't do it but safety is number one and we have Christie and Jackson and our backpack before this trip trip for your first bag so one we don't want to put them and like something that's kind of sketchy I hate as I've said in multiple vlogs so I already kind of felt nervous yeah and yeah we just it's not worth it and I we've been to kolcheck lake before which is at the bottom it's beautiful you can go there without hiking a ton it's like four miles in or something so I'm kind of sad to not see it again but we have seen it so it's okay so I think this is a better plan it's actually gonna be like what's that like 9t miles tomorrow I think 19 miles tomorrow so it's gonna be really big day we're gonna be doing more mileage but less with our backs off yeah but with less with our packs and I think the beginning of this we said it was gonna be 24 13 and in actuality that if you go from end and it's 19 yeah so but yeah we'll be doing about 25 26 a log tomorrow will be downhill so yeah it'll be easier the hardest part is getting up to those other Lakes up there but then when I come back it'll be downhill and then it'll be downhill out so sorry for our very long explanation but backpackers update like nothing has gone right on this trip we're gone as we thought on this trip yeah at all so we just now that we have like a better idea of what the rest of the trip will look like we just thought we'd fill you guys in because we keep feeling like we're lying we're like oh we're gonna do this and then like the weather changes it I mean we knew there's ability there was gonna be weather but I don't know we're doing all of it it's been really really fun a blast yeah it's not gonna be the enchantment experience we visualized in our head but I still think that we're gonna be like amazed by what we see tomorrow yeah today was any indication so we're kind of just gonna spend the rest of the night like eating maybe watching some more netflix and going to bed cuz we're gonna get up really early so it's probably the last of our vlogging for today but tomorrow should if the weather holds up be really really awesome [Music] we go call at 5 a.m. and we are headed to the core enchantments [Music] we made it back to the first lake we're gonna check it out for a few minutes and then walk around the corner to the second lake and then have breakfast so far we can see more in the distance than we could yesterday it's not like the sunniest day but it's way clearer than yesterday so things are looking positive it's freaking beautiful [Music] just made a pit stop at our second lake snow Creek Lake and had a nice little breakfast there and now we're going to truck on yeah it's just around the corner from Lake Vivian which is the first Lake however we had to go up some kind of sketchy stuff to get to it I thought I'd be a little bit easier so but it's beautiful and definitely worth it the waters like glass there's like reflections it's just definitely a much better day today yeah though some fog rolls in but it's kind of cool it's just like patchy yeah it's kind of just getting stuck the nice thing is once you've hit the lakes they're all really close together so it doesn't take long to get between them so some of the trails pretty obvious it's like a dirt path but there are a lot of areas where it's really rocking you have no idea where to go to look for these guys these are Karen's this is like rock stacks and they help guide the way so far they have not let us the wrong traction [Music] we made it to inspiration Lake and this is going to be our stopping point for the day unfortunately we don't have time to go any farther so it to turn around here go back to camp finish packing up and then hike the eight miles down to the snow lake trailhead where a Vaughn and Jeffrey will drive us so the cold chuckling trailhead to get our van and then we'll divide the bumpy road to Leavenworth and hopefully get food so we have a lot ahead of us still lots of mileage today we're not even probably not even I know we're definitely not even halfway through it yeah but the weather cooperated with us it's been absolutely gorgeous yeah it's beautiful out here the trees are changing although we didn't get like that sunny summer like swim in the lake weather I'm really happy we got to the trees changings I think it just makes it extra beautiful to have like the yellows and the greens so sure it's been studying I can see why they call it the enchantments it's very enchanting the first we got so lucky that we started early because it was beautiful when we started and like the Sun actually came up and now it's just like socked in with fog so oh sometimes getting ever really sucks but always always worth it stuff looking a little eerie going down though we're about to get to the really hard part so we're gonna focus for a bit so I don't fall maybe we'll check in before we get back to camp made it back to camp we're all packed up and now it's time to go eight miles left oh my god we made it down took us about three hours and 45 minutes to get down and when we first started it was raining and sprinkling and it was right we got our jackets on and everything and packed covers but other than that it was pretty uneventful it was a rainbow yeah other than that it was just painful yeah my knees feel like someone has taken a baseball bat just like beat them and feed them like oh they hurt so bad and my feet hurt and yeah it was brutal at the end not gonna live but I'm worn out but I'm so tired we'd have coffee today either oh but guess what we did it we did it and now it's time to celebrate so even though the weather wasn't ideal the entire time and we didn't have like the best permit the core permit it was still an awesome weekend backpacking the enchantments yeah for sure today and the whole trip was a crazy day lots of mileage today we had what 18 maybe 19 and then in total like 30 ish 30 31 oh man it was a really awesome trip and the views were just incredible yeah I like the core area is just so different than many places we've hiked ever or in Washington yeah so I can see why it's like such a hot spot people want to go too and even where we camped although it was more similar places we've been in the past like scenery wise which is gorgeous we an awesome camp spot yeah I think we want to do it again but I think next time it sounds crazy but we want to do it like all in one day which is like 19 ish miles but like today we kind of had to rush through like the core part just because of how the timing worked out but we probably stopped a rush a little bit if we did it over one day however before this weekend I thought that backpacking it was the best way to do it because you had more time and I still think it is if you have like four days really yeah yeah I'd be the most ideal but after doing a lot of the hike today without our packs on I think that the the through hike like the day hike would be good because you don't carry the heavy backpack thanks yeah the backpacks make it a lot harder so I don't know and to write like a really detailed blog post soonish about kind of the mistakes you made the different routes she can take and just all the things we learn from this experience because it is a really popular thing people like to do in Washington but yeah it was incredible it was so much fun but we're really tired how you like dermavol was a dark and stormy night there was a ghost and made a couple back man back in males who says you can't be fashionable and hike [Music]