Beauiful, clear, HOT day for a hike/climb. First 4 miles are along a 'trail' that is in fine condition and has a lot of new boardwalks being constructed at the north end of Hyas lake. Several small stream crossings and many campsites along the way. Then, there's a sign on a tree on the right side of the trail pointing to Tuck and Robin lakes. The 'trail' (at least how I define it) seems to end about 1/4 mile after you take the 'trail'. It's UP with roots and rocks to Tuck Lake. Almost as beautiful as the Robin Lakes. From Tuck, if you think you've gone UP, there's even more to get to Robin. There is no 'trail' other than a few cairns in every direction...plan on getting on the wrong 'trail' a few times. I was exhausted carrying my 35lb pack up the boulders and hanging onto whatever branches/trees that were available. Robin lakes are spectacular. Many campsites were occupied but there was one I found between the two largest lakes that was perfect. I had mosquito lasagna for dinner and raced to bed. Next morning I was awakened at 6:00am (too early for me) by a baby crying...not human...a baby mountain goat. Got out and talked to it and here comes MOM. I backed toward the lake in case she got protective but the baby ran to Mom and I was safe. Then all the relatives appeared and I had a great time taking pictures. Only snow remaining is along the lake side of Granite Mtn..nothing to walk over. Enjoyed a mosquito/fly granola breakfast and took the day exploring and then back out. Thanks to WTA, ALL 'trails' aren't like this...but once in a while, I'll continue to abuse myself !....great 'hike' ! Oh, just remembered to say that the 12? mile dirt/rock/chuckhole/?><": road is not for low cars or people who like their cars.

My son and I took a loop trip. We hiked up to Peggy's Pond (should be Ponds) from the Hyas Lake parking area (over 50 cars). Spent 2 nights a little above Peggy's Pond and climbed Mount Daniel. Nice climb via the Hyas Glacier route. Then we went back to Cathedral Pass and took the PCT to Deception Pass. This trail needs some brush work and the crossing of the river was work. Luckily, we had water shoes. Then on to Tuck's Pot and Robin Lakes. We were going to stay 2 nights there also; however, the humidity and bugs convinced us to go back to cool and bug free Montana a day early. These are great places to be a month from now. A WTA work party was doing some good work on the Deception Pass trail replacing wood walkways over swamp area.

July 20, 2009: Robin Lakes - "Hellish paradise"

Earthly paradises always seem to include the unforseen fine-print. I had last been in the Robin Lakes area three years ago. Now residing in faraway Pittsburgh, this place was at the very top of my list of places to see, whenever I next made a summer visit to Washington. When I think of Washington I don't think volcanoes, I think lakes, particularly of the alpine variety. They draw me to them like catnip to a cat, a juicy bone to a dog, or warm flesh to mosquitoes.

On a short 4 day trip to Seattle, I decided to finish off my trip in style with a hike to Robin Lakes. I wanted to spend as much of the day as I could in the high country, so I left the house at 2:30am and was on my hike by 5:30am. The flat first few miles, past Hyas Lake, went smooth and easy, as did the next uphill mile to just shy of Deception Pass. That was it for smooth trails. A sandy, crumbly, generally yucky trail took me steeply up to Tuck Lake. (The return trip on this section took even longer because of the loose, slippery surface.)

I always feel a bit sorry for Tuck Lake. It's quite beautiful, but suffers a bit in comparison to the higher Robin Lakes area. I had intended to do justice to it this time around. Unfortunately, here is when hell buzzed its way into paradise. A swarm of mosquitoes focused themselves on the only warm body around. Reluctantly, I decided that I'd have to spend more time at this lake, if I had it, on the way back.

The 1 mile from Tuck to the Robins is one of the steeper ones around, but I hardly noticed it. The boulder strewn mess shy of Tuck Lake was replaced by a ridge constructed of granite slabs, painted with heather and other delicate flowers. Mount Daniel posed on one side, while better and better views of Tuck Lake appeared on the other. The only fly in the ointment was a mosquito. Or two. Or maybe a thousand of them. Those stupid so-and-so's had left the friendly confines of Tuck Lake and made me their bestest of buddies.

Finally the seething, roiling mass that was me, inside my little bubble of flying friends, crested a bump in the ridge to gaze on the Robin Lakes basin. That sight is as good as it gets. Anywhere. Lower and Upper Robin Lakes are stunning blue splashes amidst the purity of white granite and even whiter snow. I stood there, slapping absent-mindedly at the mosquitoes and settled on an optimal route through the basin.

Deviating slightly from my original plans, I headed down to the south-western end of Lower Robin Lake and up the slope on the far side of the lake. I went up on granite pillows, amidst snow patches, until I stood on a small dome shaped sub-summit of Granite Mountain. I then worked my way along a ridge, on sometimes crumbly steep terrain, past more snow fields and assorted mountain goats, until I reached my high point of the day - Granite Mountain's 7,144ft summit.

By now I was felling mosquitoes by the hundreds, or was it thousands? The little beasties just sneered at my efforts, undeterred by this piffling bit of adversity. They had a buffet and they intended to get their money's worth. I swaddled myself in my rain jacket, including the hood, pulled my hat brim low, and donned my gloves. The little devils still found holes in my defences. Sweat pouring from every pore, feeling like an idiot...but, I was still in heaven. Such was the magnificence of my balcony in the sky.

Eventually, I resumed downward progress and dropped down the gentler northern ridge of Granite Mountain to the north end of Upper Robin Lake. Small tarns everywhere; just too many to all be visited. I contented myself with a nice sampling and hiked past snow-melt streams through precious basins, until I had circled all the way around Upper Robin Lake and was back at the Lower Robin.

I blew a kiss to the lakes, wondering when I could manage a return, and started on the long descent back to the car. I was leaving paradise - unfortunately, hell followed me all the way back to the car. It was with great satisfaction that I dispatched the 10 intrepid souls that actually joined me in the car. The tables reversed, I waved cheerily at the hungry mob outside the car and drove off.

Cumulative stats:
- Distance: 17mi
- Elevation gain: ~6000ft
- Hiking/photography time: 14hrs
- Total trip time: 20hrs

Postscript: I don't know about the rest of you but my brain seems to freeze when I am being hounded by mosquitoes. I hate these little pests.

Additional photos: http://www.flickr.com/[…]/72157621787015846

And I thought my trip up to Tuck and Robin lakes a few years ago was great, this one was even more awesome! Absolutely perfect weather, reasonable bug levels, goats everywhere, and great company. With a rare amount of time off Beth joined me for a three day trip. We left town early and set off down the trail around 9:30. The Scatter creek ford was fairly shallow and no problem for my Outback. Several lower clearance cars were also parked on the drive out.

As we set out a team of six heavily laden WTA mules and horses walked through. Each mule carried two very beefy wooden posts for building new puncheon near Hyas lake. Turns out it was in preparation for a WTA volunteer vacation. They'd been working all week to bring the lumber in. We passed them by and continued on to the lakes. Already it was very warm. We made good time to Tuck lake, passing two very large groups from an adventure company hiking out.

After a break at Tuck we tackled the rest of the trail upwards. Many of the cairns were knocked down so we had a few small stops and starts finding the best path but not too much difficulty. There were two small snow slopes to cross, no need for ice axes. We rolled into Robin lakes around 3:15 and were surprised to see a lot of floating ice on the water! It sure added to the beauty of the place. Even better - no tents around! We strolled through, met the first goat welcoming committee, and claimed the best campsite (in my opinion anyway) on the rise between the two lakes.

Now to the business of the day: relaxing. We lounged around the rest of the day, had a contest to see who could keep their feet in the water the longest (I think Beth won with 15 seconds to my 10), watched goats, and just took it easy. I brought another PackItGourmet meal, this time chicken and dumplings, which turned out fantastic. Add in two cans of Fat Tire and it was an all around awesome meal. All we needed was a deck of cards. Sunset was pretty but muted. We turned in early, both tired from hard work weeks. Temperatures were perfect for sleeping: I'd say mid 40s. The only cold came from breezes off the partially frozen upper lake.

It was light by 5:30 so we rolled out of bed early. Another PackItGourmet meal of pancakes and syrup hit the spot. We loaded up on water, sunscreen, bug juice, and headed out for Granite Mountain. The trail up to the ridge was easy to follow. One group left the route and crossed side-slope on snow to the saddle. This would require an ice-axe so we continued on to the top and scrambled down easy but fairly steep rock to cross at the saddle, no axe needed. From there another boot path took us up to Granite. The bugs up here were surprisingly bad but we had no breeze. Views were stellar at least.

We opted to descend east on the snow below the summit and check out the partially frozen little lakes below. The snow was steep near the top but soft enough with a good run out we felt comfortable with just poles. Several hundred feet more of scrambling down granite slabs took us to the water. Very pretty place! I'd hoped to make a loop coming up the slabs at the highpoint to the north (lets call it Marian peak, keeping with the Friar Tuck / Robin Hood themed names) but this clearly wouldn't work. We continued north around the ponds and circled back west around the backside, coming up some shallow snow slopes and easy goat trails to regain the ridge. Great views up here down to Robin lakes!

Some more wandering took us further north along the ridge to a partially melted little tarn and nice views down to Granite Potholes, Lake Phoebe, and Lake Leland. There was still a lot of snow around Granite Potholes and climbing down to them may require an ice axe. More cross country took us back west and up along the ridge to Trico. We searched both summits (I forget which is the true summit) but couldn't find the register this time. Views were still awesome, much better than my last trip.

We were both running very low on water and fading fast from the heat of the sun. Without a breeze my thermometer read 70 - 80 degrees the whole time. We found the main boot path and followed this back to our camp for more relaxing and goat watching. Around 6 a few backpackers arrived, pitching camp at the far end of lower Robin. One guy dropped down to the water, we assumed to filter water, but instead stripped down and dove in! He sure didn't stay in long.

An hour later we saw a few silhouettes with backpacks appear on the ridge. Then a few more. Then more. And more! 10 people in total! The milled around for awhile then descended to pick camp on the grass across the water from us. It was a group of teenage boys and two adults. They proved to be both very entertaining and obnoxious at the same time. Some pitched their tents and disappeared but a few others seemed intent on harassing the goats, one even pulling a few karate poses and tossing a rock. Eventually they settled on trundling large rocks down into the cold water. I'm sure all of this was hilarious in the minds of teenagers.

Sunset was absolutely awesome friday night! Incredible colors and perfect reflections on the still water. For whatever reason the goats all abandoned us. We counted 21 unique goats thursday night but only a handfull friday, all hanging around the teenagers. There was one goat in particular we were looking for, a very small kid with an injured back leg we nick-named Gimpy. Earlier in the day we'd seen him fall down some rocks to land in the lake, probably due to hopping on 3 legs. No idea how he was injured in the first place. With our food secured we turned in for another nice night of sleep. Temperatures were pleasant and no wind meant wide-open sides of the Tarptent.

We were again up early for breakfast. The small group of backpackers headed out early, circling around Robin onto the ridge. I assume they were doing the traverse out to Paddy-Go-Easy. On todays menu was French toast courtesy of PackItGourmet. Very tasty and sweet but messy to prepare. We cleaned up and left camp around 10, keeping a slow pace to savor the views. Unfortunately around the outlet of lower Robin a less savory smell was found: dead goat. We found one dead goat on a rock that appeared very recently deceased, no more than a day. We never saw the other thankfully. The descending group of kids thursday told us about this one and they all thought it was cool though.

Dropping back to Tuck lake a few dayhikers were on their way in, two with an older black lab having some trouble with the scramble. Down at Tuck several groups were now camped and most going swimming. The water wasn't bad but still too cold for me. One guy with a black dog entertained us for awhile by throwing ever larger pieces of wood to be fetch. We kept our consistant pace downwards, thoughts of warmer water in Hyas lake on our minds.

Along the way we found many more people on their way into the lakes. One group of younger kids were even hauling a colorful beach umbrella, complete with a stand. Closer to the lake the members of the WTA vacation were hiking in. Some seemed a little dismayed by the giant stacks of lumber. We bid them good luck and walked on, finding a vacant campsite with water access. Wading in knee deep the water was chilly but not terrible with the warm humid air. Beth quickly showed me up by diving in head first. I finally forced myself to flop over backwards in the warmer shallows. Very refreshing!

We covered the rest of the flat trail quickly to stay ahead of the bugs, not wanting to add stickiness onto clean skin. A quick change of clothes and we were on our way out. By now nearly every campsite along the road was occupied and many others were just playing in the river. We kept on going, stopping in Roslyn for pizza. Great food and good service too, especially for how busy they were. Satisfied with a great trip, good food and beer, we forced ourselves to return to civilization. Had we brought enough food we may never have come back!

Bug report: Not bad at all! Mostly flies, few mosquitos. This will probably change soon as the snow around the lakes melts.

Trip photos: http://www.pbase.com/billcat/tuckrobin2