Jasmine and I decided to take advantage of the nice summer weather and go for a hike up in the Cascades. Leaving Seattle to the east there is only one major road that goes through the mountains: I-90. As such, there are a large number of hikes that start on the I-90 corridor and, frankly, it is hard to find a hike that doesn’t have an I-90 trailhead.
The trailhead for Annette Lake is about a one hour drive east on I-90 and is both pretty and popular. We hit up lake late on a weekday, so we missed out on the worst of the crowd and managed to get maximum pretty.
The hike is only 7.5 miles and only has one small downside: it is all uphill on the way out with a 1800 ft elevation gain. It is not that I like flat hikes better, but I do like some variety in my walk other than straight up. But the hike is well worth it with a stunning alpine lake at the summit. The lake was, however, a bit brisk. I estimate the temperature at 0 C based on the snow covering 3/4 of the lake, so no swimming. 

It wouldn’t be a cascade hike without some waterfalls.

Snow! The last mile was on again off again snow covered trail.

Pretty lake! I promise the lake is under the snow.

I found the lake! And while I didn’t go swimming, I did wade in knee deep. It was COLD!