The first winter storm of the season was blowing. Up to a couple feet of fresh snow fallen or falling. Where to go? I chose an easy drive. I headed up I-90 and took the Denny Creek exit to the Pratt Lake parking lot. Most folks on this trail turn off after a mile and head up Granite Mountain. With possible deep snow up high and lightning in the forecast I chose to stay on the Pratt Lake route. Only 7 or 8 cars in the lot when I started out at 9:00 am. I was raining lightly.

The first patches of snow appeared at about 2800' after crossing the big creek and switchbacking up the far side. By the time I reached the creek crossing with a small waterfall there was a little snow on the trail. I could now see several footprints and one set of dog prints. The trail is mostly in the forest. In the few open sections the snow went from nearly non existent to a few inches deep.

The route turned away from the highway and up the valley of Talapus and Olallie Lakes. It was very quiet now and the last of the rain had turned to falling wet snow. By the long board walk there was six inches of snow on the ground. At the Olallie Lake junction the footprints all continued up the Pratt Trail. Looked like I'd have my trail breakers a little longer. I had thought about going to Pratt or Rainbow Lakes but my progress was slowed by the snow and photo opportunities and I began to think a little less ambitiously.

Soon I met two of the trail breakers who were heading down. They mentioned one guy and a dog still ahead. When I reached the Olallie inlet creek the snow was more than a foot deep. The crossing was easy though the creek was much wider than a month ago. The trail is nearly flat as it traverses above Olallie Lake at the end of the valley. I reached the Olallie Lake overlook and left forest. Here the snow was more like 18 to 24 inches deep. The clouds were so thick I could not see the lake right below me. With only one person ahead of me the slogging became more work in the deepening snow.

At the Pratt - Defiance trails junction I stopped. Tracks continued on the Defiance Trail. With the narrow trail on steep slopes ahead and the deep snow I chose to turn around. After a long dry summer it felt a little strange to be wallowing in snow again. I should have quite a few months to get used to it again. The snow was falling much harder now and my footprints were rapidly being filled in. The trip down was easy enough as the trail is gently graded.

Below the Olallie junction I met a couple headed to Olallie Lake. They were in good spirits despite the gray day. Much farther down I passes several more groups heading up. On the last 1 1/2 miles there was some water on this usually dry trail. I took some time to route it off the trail. This slowed me down enough for the lead trail breaker and his dog to catch up. They had gone part way towards Island and Rainbow Lakes before the steep slope and deep snow turned them around. Back at the trailhead there were more cars than in the morning but the lot was still not full.

I ended up with just about exactly what I had hoped for. No snow to drive in but snow on the trail after the first mile and a half. Eight miles round trip with 2400' of gain was a good workout without using snowshoes. They would have been necessary to have gone much farther. I really like hiking after the first good snowfall of the season. Avalanche danger is still minimal. The last leaves of fall are now covered with the first snow of winter. It can be a beautiful time to be in the mountains.

More photos can be found at: http://www.hikingnorthwest.com. Go to "Trips-2009" on the left margin.

I started from the Talapus lake TH, headed up past Pratt lake and onto the Kaleetan trail. The trail is in good condition and there was only a single other lonely soul on the trail the whole way out. Not unexpected for a mid-week hike though.

Kaleetan lake has a great view of Kaleetan Peak. I walked around a bit, and there isn't great lake access. You have to walk through a small field to even get to the lake. There's a nice camp spot right next to the creek running out of the lake though. The only downside to camping here is that because of Kaleetan peak, you don't get direct sunlight until later in the morning. I left camp around 9AM and there still wasn't direct sunlight. There were a lot of nice, ripe (almost overripe) blueberries right around the camp area.

Trail is in excellent shape. Somebody did some extensive brushing around Pratt Lake and Lake Tuscohatchie, and some very good turnpike construction. There are a couple of culverts that need cleaning out on the approach to Ollalie Saddle and coming down toward Pratt Lake. There are also some sadly sagging bridges - on the Ollalie-Pratt connector and on the Pratt trail after the junction with the connector. Two puncheons where the trail skirts Pratt meadows are missing some planks.

Road 9030 off I-90 is all repaired and in great shape. The trail takes off through the woods, up some stairs, and climbs 12 or 14 gentle switchbacks to a series of small bridges over Lake Talapus outlet stream. A few more gentle switchbacks brings you around the ridge where you can hear the Lake Ollalie outlet stream. Follow this to a very obvious junction with a sign that points to the two aforementioned lakes. To your right is an easy stream crossing. This is the connector to the Pratt Trail which is about 1/4 mile long. The Pratt Trail climbs easily around the slopes above Lake Ollalie to a nice viewpoint and then the Ollalie Saddle junction. Go to the right, downhill. Several switchbacks bring the trail down and around a boulder strewn bowl and then out across a talus slope. From here you can see fall colors on the shores of Lake Pratt and Mt. Kaleetan rising majestically on the horizon.

There is no good spot to sit in the sun at Lake Pratt but just a half mile further is Lake Tuscohatchie with a nice flat rock on the other side of the bridge right on the water. A great place for lunch. Round trip is about 12 miles which I made 3.5 hours in and 3 hours out. Some Chanterells along the trail were past their prime but I did get home with a nice bag of tender young Oyster mushrooms for supper.

When I arrived at the Pratt Lake/Granite Mtn. trail head parking lot, only two other cars where there with a group of 6 just heading out. As I was putting my boots on it hailed for a few minutes. I had decided to hiked up to Ollalie Lake via the Pratt Lake trail instead of the usual trail past Talapus Lake. The second large creek crossing has nice water falls to view. It rained for a short time as I was heading up the trail. Further on were the trail goes over old cedar puckeon bridges, there was snow on them. I was the first one up today as no boot tracks were seen in the snow. After getting to the junction with the Pratt Lake/Talapus Lake trails, I hiked down to the other junction to go the Ollalie Lake. There was a little snow on the trail in places on the way to the lake. Only saw one other hiker as I arrived at the lake, but he was leaving to go explorer the trail to the end of the lake. The view from my lunch spot across the lake to the snow covered trees on the ridges with the temp at 38 degrees made it look like winter. I had snowshoed up to the lake several times in the past via the same route and gone around it on winter days.

After eating lunch I headed back down the trail, crossed the outlet creek, then over to the Pratt Lake trail. The only wildlife I saw was one chipmunk, plus some mushrooms popping up. The sun did poke out from between the clouds for a while on the way down. When I was about 1/2 mile from the trailhead I met a guy wearing shorts, no boots and a cotton seatshirt, and his dog who were hiking up the trail. Since it was 2:15 PM I asked him were he was headed. He told me he was hiking up Mt. Defiance. Apparently he did not have a map and said he had on old guide book. After explaining to him that he would need to take the Ira Spring trail to Mason Lake (he didn't know about that trail) he decided to go up Granite Mtn. instead. I did tell he would be running into snow on the way up.

At the parking lot when I was getting ready to leave another guy drove in and parked. He was wondering around and came over and asked me where he could get a 1-day Forest Pass. After I told him they were not available here at the trailhead he said he would park down the road past the fee sign. It was now 2:45 PM and he told me he was going up Granite Mtn. and would take him only 2 hours. He didn't looked dressed for a hike in the snow as he was wearing a short sleave dress shirt with slacks. I thought I only saw these types of people on the week ends in the summer.