Beautiful, rainy Sunday for a hike! I hiked to Rachel and Rampart Lakes. Gaia recorded round trip distance at 9.03 miles (although, that includes any off trail wandering, either lost or for picture purposes, so it may not be completely accurate). Elevation gain - 2403 ft. Total moving time - 5:14.

Parking/Road - The road in is in good condition. There are a few potholes to watch out for but easy to avoid. I arrived at the TH around 6:00am to about 15 cars in the upper lot. I assume most were overnighters since I saw a few people coming down. There was still parking available. When I came back down around 12pm, a few more people had arrived, but there were still spots available.

Trail Conditions - Very rocky and rooty in places. There are some log crossings/stream crossings. It can also be hard to follow at times. I would recommend using a map/GPS to make sure you’re headed in the right direction. But the trail is BEAUTIFUL. My favorite part was seeing Hitbox in the distance. There are also some tight squeezes through shrubbery taller than you, but I liked it. It was a bit cloudy/drizzly, but everything still looked amazing.

Trail Difficulty - WOW does it get steep towards the end. At about the 2-2.5mi mark, the ascent starts gaining fast. Once you reach Rachel Lake, there are some nice areas to take a break at. I chose to hike a little further down to the beach area on the right end of the lake. The trail up to Rampart is also very steep. And very rocky. The loose dirt also made for a few slips. Poles were helpful both up and down!

Creatures/Critters/Bugs - I saw some chipmunks. No other critters unfortunately:(. The bugs were not bad. The only real annoyance were the spider webs. How can there be so many??

Overall, the views made up for all the pain. Would recommend. Prepare to break a sweat, though. Also, saw ~15 people on the trail and everyone was awesome! Love the community.

Once again I’m being reminded that trail difficulty shall not be assessed as a simple length-to-gain ratio for the elevation gain can be compressed…

Road & Trailhead

Forest road is soothingly smooth. A bit of washboard and a couple minor potholes, but any car can pass, and maintaining 25-30 mph is no issue except in curves.

Trailhead has two large parking lots; many people park way too wide - there’s no shame in getting closer to each other folks, who’s gonna judge you, chipmunks? Anyway, I was able to find a spot in the lower lot, but there were cars parked along the road for maybe quarter mile.

Toilet is running out of essentials, but is clean. No passes are sold at the TH besides a QR code for online purchase.

Hike

• Trail: flat and overgrown in places for the first 1.5 mi; relentless rocky and rooty climb to Rachel lake after that; a bit easier to Lila lake.
• Water crossings: numerous, including log walking, rock hopping, and wadding; waterproof boots are helpful.
• Navigation: less than obvious throughout the climb toward Rachel lake, with many optional routes. Nothing dangerous as all branches seem to always rejoin, so one won’t get lost, but choosing the wrong option will usually end with bushwhacking or steep slope or a mudpool. Having a good offline map is essential.
• Berries: start occurring at Rachel lake and up, abundant in quantity, hit and miss in quality. Some patches are the biggest and sweetest blueberries I’ve seen in the wild. Some are absolutely disgusting. (I feel berries at Mt. Baker deliver more consistently). If you want to pick berries for the future consumption, make sure to sample beforehand, and if it’s meh, the entire slope / area will usually be like that.
• Fall colors: a bit around Lila lake, otherwise not much. Many blueberry bushes seem to dry brown rather than turn red.

Stats & Crowds

In 11 am, out 4.30 pm.

• 1 hr 30 min up to Rachel lake
• 1 hr 15 min from Rachel to Lila (including ~30 min berry picking)
• 15 min at Lila lake
• 2 hr 30 min down (including another ~20 min berry picking)

Despite this being a combined trail for many destinations, it was not crowded at all. Lila lake seems to be the least visited with majority people going to Rachel or Rampart, so I had that stretch of the trail almost entirely to myself. 

A great hike, but be prepared: it’s longer and spicier than the trail description indicates. We clocked a little over 8 miles, and the last 1.25 miles to the lake are no joke—steep, rooty & rocky, and comically easy to get off trail. That said, persistence and a good attitude reaps the reward of Rachel in all its Alpine beauty. Plenty of friendly people and dogs kept us company, but not too crowded on this beautiful early-autumn Saturday. Forest road is in good shape and parking not too bad. Took us 5:20 RT (I told you it was steep!). Glad to have tackled this one at last, and overall a great day out on the trail.

The trail itself is walking through a river bed, so its all roots and rocks! Can make for a difficult time. Some areas are overgrown, there's one bridge that is collapsing so be careful on it. Tons of camp spots at Rachel Lake, so thats where I stayed overnight, too foggy to see anything at rampart. 10/10 would hike again

What a hike!

Got to trailhead a little after noon to a nearly full parking lot. The road was washboardy but did not pose any problems. 

The trail starts with a gentle climb then levels out and is mostly flat for the next 3ish miles. Almost all of the elevation gain is in the last mile or so and this is where the trail starts to become hard to follow. There were several instances where 2 or 3 trails appear viable and impossible to tell which is the 'true' trail. We heard from other hikers that they all connect so maybe it doesn't even matter in the end, but good idea to download the map beforehand and/or hike this one with a buddy. WTA says it is a 7 mile roundtrip, but our Garmin said we went 9 miles.

The lake at the top was absolutely stunning! Perfect to jump in or just dip your toes. The abundance of blueberries at the top made for an even more delicious snack break. 

We did not encounter any bugs on the trail or at the lake.