Snyder Lake 2015

Saturday, May 2, I went on my first hike of the year.  It was a nice day on Saturday and Patti convinced me to go on a hike.  She chose Snyder Lake.

Snyder Lake is a hike best done in Spring or Fall/Winter as the snow on the mountains that surround the valley with the lake adds to the hike.  The other times I hiked to Snyder Lake had been in November and January.

http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2008/11/snyder-lake.html
http://tallpineshiker.blogspot.com/2010/01/snyder-lake-in-january.html

The elevation of the lake is 5,246 ft.  The length is 787 ft and the width is 427 ft.

On Saturday there was only snow the last quarter mile or so to the lake.  The lake had open areas of water.

We seen a handful of other hikers and two men from Michigan who were camping on the snow by the lake for several nights.

Bridge over Snyder Creek near the lake's outlet.

We also seen a relatively fresh pile of bear scat once we left the Sperry/Gunsight trail and were on the trail to Snyder Lake.

We did not see a bear.  We did see a garter snake.

We also seen some diving ducks in the open water areas.  Patti researched them later and found they were  Barrow's Goldeneye.  (http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barrows_Goldeneye/id)   I didn't get a decent photo of them as my camera's zoom doesn't work.

Patti counted about 20 fallen trees across the Sperry/Gunsight and Snyder trails that we either had to go around or crawl under.

The trail ends along the lake.  Due to the snow we were able to walk along the snowed covered lake to a scree/rock field at the head of the lake near where Snyder Creek enters the lake. In the Summer I believe it is brushy and there is no trail to this part of the lake.  A large part of this rock area was snow free and warm.  It also provided the best view of the lake.  We ate our lunches on one of the large rocks along the lake shore.

For 21 more photos, follow this link: https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/6145275298395069121?authkey=COnbhaOfvOfAaw

Here is a 1:10 video of Snyder Creek leaving the lake and a couple short segments of water flowing across the trail: https://youtu.be/LjVX4i4HJpo

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