We enjoyed a great (and quiet!) overnight trip to the Pratt Lake Basin from the Talapus Lake Trailhead at the end of Forest Road 9030 at exit 45 on I-90. There are quite a few potholes at the beginning of the dirt road that need careful navigation, but high-clearance vehicles will have no problem with these or the sections of washed out road about half way up the switchbacks. We even saw a Subaru Outback at the trailhead on our way out.
The trail is free of snow all the way over the 4200' ridge line between Olallie and Pratt Lakes. Use of good hiking boots is recommend, however, due to the excessively muddy conditions on the mild slope from the trailhead to Talapus Lake. Sturdy footwear comes in handy in the basin as well, where there is a fair amount of scree to traverse.
We headed out in the early evening on Friday evening. There were only three cars at the trailhead, and we passed every one of the day-hike parties belonging to these vehicles, so we felt confident that once we passed Talapus, we'd have the entire trail to ourselves, and we were right. We didn't spot a single soul all the way back to Pratt. Coming back out on Saturday morning, we spotted a pair of hikers once we reached Olallie, and then a handful of other groups heading in for day hikes as well. We counted 8 other vehicles at the trailhead, even though it was a rainy Saturday morning.
We enjoyed cloudy, but dry conditions all the way back to Pratt Lake, but then dove into our tents around 8pm when the rain started to fall in earnest. In the morning, we woke to sleet, and hiked out to a pretty heavy snowfall all the way from Pratt to Olallie, enough to coat the trees and dust all of the exposed areas of the trail.
GPX: http://tinyurl.com/pratt-lake-gpx
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