A few weeks ago, I hiked up to Minotaur Lake. It’s a short, steep hike. I loved the view so much, I’m hoping to scramble up nearby Labyrinth Mountain soon.
Mike Riley, a local hiker, emailed me about his trip in August. He has a fun video here that shows the hailstorm he and his group were trapped in. (At 0:25 you can see the hail bouncing around like large, painful popcorn.)
From Mike: “That was the weekend the thunderstorms went through the Cascades and caused the washouts at Cascade River Road and SR 20. On the Friday night, we enjoyed a continuous lightning show for about 4 hours, and the next night, it rained for several hours. On the Saturday, at around 6 p.m., we experienced a 15 minute hail storm where the stones exceeded one inch (my car shows it). … Interestingly, by morning each day, it was as peaceful as one could imagine and my North Face tent handled it great.
“Also, it is only an 800-foot climb from the lake to Labyrinth Mountain. It is a fascinating viewpoint. Because it is higher than the surrounding region, it is like an island, and because it is a couple miles east of the crest, it is a great place to see how the Cascades act as a barrier to the marine air flows.”
*Correction, Sept. 20, 2013: The caption on the photo has been corrected to accurately describe the direction the photo was taken.
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