The plan was for me to drive from Federal Way to meet friends at the Deep Creek Campground between 8:00 and 9:00. I told them if I wasn’t there by 9:00, they should just head out head out without me. As it turned out, I parked at 8:35 and waited for them until 9:40 -- drinking way too much coffee -- then suited up and started out on the Twin Sisters Trail.

(FS 1800 is mostly paved to the junction with FS 1808, which is in pretty good shape overall -- I was able to go 20 mph for most of it. When you get to the Deep Creek Horse Camp, ignore the signage that directs you to the Twin Sisters Trail -- there’s a hiker’s trailhead and parking for about six cars at the end of the road and Deep Creek Campground. The campground itself is primitive, with six or so back-in sites, no water, and a pit toilet outhouse.)

It was a tough day for figuring out layers -- shady and cool in the forested areas and hot in the exposed meadows. And here I am on the second weekend of rifle hunting wearing green and brown! I saw six hunters throughout the day, one of whom admonished me for not wearing any orange. I pointed at my safety yellow rain pack cover and explained that that was the best I could do today. Didn’t hear a single shot all day.

The Twin Sisters Lakes are quite nice. I’m assuming there’s some fish in them, because I saw anglers at each trying their luck. There is a designated camp at Big Twin Sisters Lake, and it looks like pick your own spot at the wide meadow North of Little. There’s also a nice sandy beach at Little.



I reached the top of Tumac in just under 3 hours and enjoyed a light breeze and silence, and signed the summit register. Thanks to the person that recently left the new notepad! The peak offers views of Rainier, Adams and St. Helens, and countless lakes and tarns -- if you don’t believe me, check out the upper quarter of GT map 303.

Never having hiked in the William O., I went in expecting dry, dusty, east-slope scrub. Boy, was I in for a surprise. Little Twin Sisters lake in the fall is simply glorious. Dozens of little points and bays surrounded by brilliantly colored pocket meadows of blueberry bushes aflame. It also has a wide beach of soft white sand and excellent camping. At this time of the year we had the camp entirely to ourselves. A few horses and a handful of hikers during the day. Side trips to Big Twin Sister (0.5 mi), Blankenship meadows+lakes (5mi loop) were lovely -- mostly level strolls through alternating blueberry meadows and forest. Blankenship meadow is unusual: Huge by Cascades standards, but seems to be shrinking fast. Another trip was Tumac Mtn, with fantastic views in all directions, incl Rainier, Adams, White Pass, Goat Rocks, and points east. This was our first overnight trip with the kids (aged 4 and 6) and the first thing out of their mouths as we started back down the trail was: ""When can we come back?"".

No bugs at all. The trails are kind of beat up by the horse traffic, but after a hot dry summer + recent rains to hold down the dust they were neither muddy nor dusty. I imagine that between the mud, dust and the bugs the key to a successful visit to the area is timing, timing, timing.

PS: Not that they bothered us at all, but for those wishing to avoid the horses, they seemed to prefer the Blankenship trail to the Twin Sisters trail by far. Also the camping area at Big Twin Sister seems to be posted ""no stock"".

First, thanks to Slugman for helping me plan my trip, which was our first to the William O. Douglas Wilderness.

We accessed Blankenship Lakes via the Twin Sisters Lakes trailhead. The road to the trailhead was a bit rough in spots but fine for any car. It was less than 4 miles (~2 hours) to the Blankenship Lakes (via the Sand Ridge trail #1104) on good trails. Despite the fact that it was Labor Day, once we passed the lovely Twin Sisters lakes we didn’t see many other backpackers. In fact, we had an entire Blankenship lake to ourselves. The lakes right now look pretty low-they have that drawn down reservoir look, with lots of wide, muddy edges, which made the area not as scenic as it might be earlier in the season, but “our” lake (the westernmost one) was not that low and was still pretty. We actually had a hard time finding a good, established campsite in the area-I was surprised to see, in this fairly large, flat area, that there just weren’t that many obvious sites. But we did find a decent one on the west side of the westernmost lake (there are a couple on that side). We tried fishing but the Blankenship Lakes are so shallow, and we saw no evidence of fish at all in our lake.

We day hiked the next day up Tumac Mountain, which is a must-do if you are in that area for the fantastic views. We found a social trail that ran between 1104 and 44 that served as a great shortcut. It faded in and out but we kept heading west and inevitably ran into the Tumac Mt. trail. I’ve never seen as many social trails as I did in this area-maybe from all the hunters who use the area? In general, this is a very easy area to explore off the main trails, either by going off trail altogether through open forest and meadows or by following social trails. We also found a significant shortcut to Blankenship Meadows from a social trail right behind our camp. These trails take you past lots of little, hidden camps near marshy little ponds that I assume are used by hunters.

This area gets a lot of horse use, and we met lots of nice horse people. Many were hunters (it was day 1 of bow season). Some hikers complain about all the horse droppings on trails, but you could hardly walk anywhere without stepping on deer and elk droppings, so it didn’t bother me (I generally look where I’m stepping on a trail, anyway). Backcountry horsemans' groups do much of the trail maintenence in this area. They seemed to prefer the larger meadow areas for camps (Blankenship Meadows, Indian Creek Meadows), so it didn't seem like hikers and horses were competing for campsites.

This area is truly huckleberry heaven-I’ve never seen or eaten so many huckleberries.

The bugs didn’t seem that bothersome but I did come home with a dozen or so (fly?) bites.

It only took 1:37 to hike out from Blankenship Lakes on Monday.