Bandera Mountain and Mason Lake

Saturday, September 12 2009
Cumulative Elevation gain 3000 ft
Trail length: 3.8 miles one way

Time taken: 2hours 20 minutes on way up
Level of difficulty: Difficult

Nice sunny day. A forest road off of exit 42 of I-90 over 3 .3 miles leads to the Ira Spring trail head. The trail starts off on an old time logging road for the first mile with gentle slope and travels eastward parallel to the highway below. Two sections of the trail were damaged by past winter storms but are passable now. Several peaks starting with McClellan Butte can be seen from this section of the trail.

Soon after, the logging road ends and the trail turns north and a steeper climb begins. By now with enough gain in elevation, Mount Rainier starts to come into view in the distance. A little while later, the forest clears up gradually. The most difficult part of the trail starts at the fork where the left trail leads to Mason Lake and the right to the Bandera Mountain. At this point, I had excellent views of the meadows up towards the Bandera mountains, the mildly serpentine interstate 90 below, and Mount Rainier far away looming above the nearer mountain ranges to the south. But alas! My camera battery had to die right there:(. It was one of those moments where the camera functionality of my cellphone proved so handy! So I used my phone to capture whatever images I could for the rest of this trip.

I continued on the Bandera trail. Oh boy - is that a trail or a staircase? It is a 45 degree assent from this point for next half mile before getting to a comparatively milder yet rocky segment. The elderly gentleman whom I met on my way commented that I had the whole mountain to myself beyond there. He was right - but where did all those people from 10 or15 odd cars parked at the trail head go? You guessed it right - on to the Mason Lake trail:). Well, I did meet two young couples during my descent from Bandera. One of the couples was actually carrying a month or so old baby!

The top of the Bandera Mountain provides all round views of mountain peaks and ranges. All these views are well worth the efforts to climb the very steep trail to get there. It was very windy up there. I stopped at the top, ate my lunch, and soaked in the views, some of them into my cellphone as well.

While returning, even though it was not originally a part of the plan, yet I decided to go sideways to the Mason Lake as well. It was another half mile from the fork in the trail and after rising over a small distance, it generally goes downwards from there on. Most of the hiker traffic was headed this way, including a few father-son teams getting out there for overnight camping. There are some nice spots by the lake suitable for camping activity even though lighting a fire is prohibited due to dangers of starting forest fires. The trail actually continues beyond the lake to several other hiking destinations in this Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. One that I have marked for a future trip is the Mount Defiance of which I had a pretty view of as can bee seen in this photograph. I rested for a few minutes watching several people getting a dip in the crystal clear but cold lake water before starting my return journey.


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