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Trip Report    

CHS 1 Hike - Shoe Lake

A CHS graduation hike along the Pacific Crest Trail starting at White Pass and going to pretty Shoe Lake.

Sonu Aggarwal Sonu Aggarwal
September 23, 2019
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The trail was in excellent shape.

    Parts of the trail are highly exposed (steep drop-offs) - the portion around Hogback Mountain.   The trail is in great shape and is reasonably level in this section; the drop-offs are steep.   This did not present problems to anyone in our group, but would recommend warning participants about this in pre-hike briefings (as we did).   

Outstanding hike overall, taking in some of the finest sections of the PCT in a relatively accessible location.

The trailhead is at White Pass - the Pacific Crest Trail South Trailhead.  (The parking lot is small - can fit 6-8 vehicles.)   Most of the group drove up the night before and stayed at the White Pass Village Inn, a half mile from the trailhead.

Recommend an early start on this trail for several reasons - the logistics of getting there, daylight buffer, the timing of lunch at the lake, etc.   Our group started the hike at 7:30am, reached Shoe Lake at noon for lunch, and returned to the trailhead at 4:30pm.   The gentle grade throughout made for a relatively fast pace even for a CHS1 hike.

We did the loop around Shoe Lake, and did it clockwise - would highly recommend doing this, and in this direction, to take in some spectacular scenery on both sides of the ridgeline above the lake.   

There was a nice beach at the lake (at the far end of the "loop") that we had all to ourselves.   Made for a terrific lunch spot.