We tried to arrive early to beat the bugs and crowds, but did not get to trailhead until 9am. The first three miles are really nice- flat, waterfalls, and quite a variety of wildflowers that had me flipping through Pojar and MacKinnon. The trail gets serious at 3 miles. The lake was beautiful, nearly transparent until a wind started. Around the lake, hikers have worn hundreds of trails into the dirt, making finding the correct path up the ridge (or anywhere) difficult. After several diminishing goat (boot) trails, we finally reemerged onto the main trail. Not paying attention (and not signed), we went to Rampart Lakes instead of heading to Rampart Ridge.Heading towards Lila lake, we missed the nearly invisible trail up to Alta mountain. The upper lakes are very serene, but I wanted to go up the mountain. We picked up a faint tread over a ridge, and stumbled onto Alta Peak Trail ""Proper"". The tread goes over 6 or 7 false rock peaks. The view from the top was great, and my faith in Alpine Lakes area renewed. Looked for Pilar's name on register, but did not see it. I am afraid we were the 2nd to last signitures on the register, so bring your own paper to sign! The way down Alta Peak Trail ""Proper"" is BRUTAL ball bearing sliding in the dust. Going straight from the peak to below Rachel Lake takes you down nearly 3300 ft in 3 miles. 4/5 way down, my partner blew her knee out. Thanks to the folks who gave her ibupropin and codeine! To make matters worse, moving slow meant we were prime targets for the expanding mosquito clouds (at one point I had 7 on my face alone). After 14 or so meandering trail miles, we made it out before dark. Remember to pack some first aid supplies when you hit the trails- they can make a big difference!

We camped overnight at Rachel Lake after visiting Rampart Lakes and wandering up the way trail toward Lake Lillian as far as the top of the ridge. The trail is in decent shape though several blowdowns remain. Beautiful scenery and weather were marred only by hordes and hordes of mosquitoes, starting halfway up to Rachel Lake and continuing as high as we went. Our headnets inspired envious comments from other hikers, but we could have used bodynets -- the mosquitoes were drilling through everything short of hiking boots and DEET only slowed them down.

The hike to Rachel Lake was lovely. four miles, lots of water, through trees, wildflowers, and a climb. The ten year olds did just fine although we carried their packs. The flys were horrid. We got to the lake and were greeted my many campers and a zillion mosquitos. We spent the entire time either moving quickly, submerged in the icy lake or in our tents. The bugs were really nasty horrid and memorable. Left the kids with their Dad and up up up to the top of the world, through more wildflowers, snowy ponds, up the rocks to unforgetable views. 2 men were sitting high on a rock overlooking the world reading latin to each other. Nice touch. Back to Rachel lake, home of 1,000,001 mosquitoes and black flies for the night. Sunday the bugs got up before we did so we hiked out early and headed to XXX Rootbeer in Issaquah. We earned it! [Webmesiter note: I have long suspected that the Rachel Lake area was infested by ancient Romans!]

Ah, another lovely day in the woods. Trail is in good shape, save for loads o' blowdown. Trees seem to be broken off this season rather than uprooted. An easy hike led us to Rachel Lake, after pausing for a bit of water we trudged up to Rampart Lakes. For an area obviously heavily used, the meadows here are pristine. Saw a little, snow, hardly got to walk on any. Sorry to report, no naked man sightings on this hike, see Yellow Aster Butte and Blanca Lake reports if you want to know what I am talking about. I really even mention this for the amusement of our Web'meister... Rampart Lakes are stunning in the classic Alpine Lakes way. We then continued along the ridgeline to Lila Lakes, nice but no match for the other lakes we'd seen. I'd camp there if I were dumb enough to go up on the weekend. Today's frolics were relatively bug-free compared to last week's Yellow Aster Butte-bugfest. I still had to put on Jungle Juice Plus three times. If you see a lovely lady drinking beer in Fremont with a big bite on her cheekbone, that would be me. I'm going to try very hard not to scratch it!!! All in all a nice 14-mile day. The Ble Angels buzzed us twice, I feel so 'connected' with Seafair being 7 miles from the car watching the airshow...harumph. See you in line buying more bug juice for next week. [Webmesiter: The webmesiter is un-amussed by the lack of nudity in your report, but since I live in Fremont I'll keep my eyes open for bug-biten babes guzzling beer.]