Miles: 7 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 1086ft/5086ft
Map: Green Trails No 303 White Pass, WA
Favorite Eats After Hike: Cliff Droppers, White Pass Taqueria, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Snowshoe Details:
A Cramer Lake snowshoe offers solitude in exchange for a more challenging route including stream crossings and steeper sections that could require navigation skills and self arrest gear when snow is deep.
The trail starts at the Dog Lake campground east of White Pass and follows the contour around the lake slowly gaining elevation. After crossing a few streams in the lake drainage, a steep northeast ascent is needed to gain the gap between Cramer Mountain and Spiral Butte.
From there, a northern route gradually has you arrive at Cramer Lake in 3.5 miles. Tumac Mountain will rise over the ridge on the other side of the lake. It is possible to continue on the west side of the lake and meet up with the Pacific Crest Trail north of Sand Lake for a longer day or possible loop hike. You an find my complete hike guide description on WTA.
My hike:
2/20/2020
I’ll start with a few key notes before going into my day today snowshoeing to Cramer Lake. First, it took me 5 hours up to the lake and 3 hours back. I did not take the most direct route having not been here before. The snow is DEEP and although you will now have tracks to follow until the next big snow, postholing is the least of your problems. There are multiple places where crossing a small stream (not just the creek) means navigating a tall berm on either side. Sucks for height challenged folks like myself. Also, after crossing the North Fork Clear Creek and heading on the traverse to Cramer could mean a steep slope where advanced snowshoeing skills are helpful and traction is imperative. This is not a tame snowshoe right now.
I parked at the pullout just west of the campground and walked the road to cross the berm before the guardrail. I headed northwest across the meadow/road there where there was evidence of sledding.
I soon crossed over through the trees and back down to the campground landing at the privies and Dog Lake sign, this added about .6 miles from the car. There were quite a few tracks.
The campsites are not visible but I was able to follow through the snow on a wide trail until I saw the sign for first sign for Cramer Lake under the canopy of branches laden by snow. Another one appeared in .15 miles and the trail continued northwest parallel to the lake. There was a faint trail to follow on the contour and I passed the wilderness boundary in a third of a mile.
In .6 miles the trail met a stream with high berms. Not liking the looks of it, I decided to follow tracks that continued parallel to it. This was a mistake and I wasted another .5 miles retracing my steps back to that same spot to figure out how to traverse it. Basically is was down and up to take up with the trail on the other side. I was now 1.75 miles into my trip but only about .6 from the campground.
Continuing northwest I had views of Spiral Butte and Dog Lake through the trees across a snow covered drainage of North Fork Clear Creek into Dog Lake. The “trail” was harder to follow but a faint impression was there.
In half a mile I turned and followed the North Fork Clear Creek west for another half mile to where it crosses. Here I debated crossing. Getting down to it on this side was okay but it was steep on the other side. The water level didn’t look too deep but no one wants wet boots on the way IN.
I took my chances and crossed with minimal water in the boots (I had gaiters on but removed my snowshoes). The climb up on the other side was a bear with snowshoes on for sure.
On the other side the official trail continues northwest before swinging around and climbing north-ish. I decided to stay low and after maneuvering a few snowbridges over the marshy area I took a steep climb up to reach the official trail at 4600 feet. At the time it seemed like I would have been better to try and follow the official trail more faithfully but time would later prove that to not be true.
At 4600 feet the trail was obvious and followed the contour around a few knolls. In another .75 miles I was heading north towards Cramer through more level terrain. I say level but there were still plenty of snowdrifts to navigate. The next mile to the lake seemed to TAKE FOREVER.
I arrived at the lake at 1:45pm, 5:15 hours and 4.7 miles from my car. Brutal. I parked myself and relaxed as long as I could. I had views across at Tumac Mountain as I sipped hot tea and noshed on snacks. I knew I would not take as long to get back but I didn’t want to arrive too late to my car.
Returning back at 2:10, I followed my steps out until the spot at 4600 feet where I then continued down on the official trail. I made it less than .25 miles on a steeply angled slope cutting steps until I reached a stream draining down the slope with a berm of at least 8-10 feet. That was a big fat NOPE.
So, I zigzagged back down following the stream to my tracks from the route in and followed them back out the rest of the way for the most part. I came out at the privies at the campground, hopped the berm and walked SR 12 back up to my car. My day ended with an 8 hour trip (6.75 hours of moving time) and 8.4 miles. It should only be about 7.3 miles to the lake for what it is worth.
So in a nut shell, you will have tracks to follow until the next storm but be prepared for steep sections, snow bridges and the ups and downs of berms!
Directions: The Dog Lake Campground is 1.5 miles east of the White Pass ski resort at a turn and Spiral Butte rises above on the left. Parking options are on small shoulders on the west and east side of the road. The west side shoulder is a quarter mile before and on the south side if the snow has been cleared. The east side shoulder is a few hundred yards east on the left north hand side. No parking pass is needed.
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