9/17-19. Overnight Monday at Lake George, and Tuesday at Klapatche Park. Good thing about weekday hike is that it's easy to get these wilderness permits. Westside Road to Round Pass (~3.8 miles) is bike-able, especially coming back. All it takes is gravity. The road is rough only on a few spots, especially at about a few minutes in, a log was used to let the foot passengers through. I pushed my bike in water. Good it was not deep and it was short. Even though the grade is gentle, I pretty much pushed my bike rather than ride it all the way to Round Pass. At Round Pass, there's a bike rack. My bike is the only one there. Behind the rack is the trail head to Lake George. 5 individual sites, 1 group site, 1 bear pole, 1 shelter. Not really any view of the lake from the camp sites, nor much view of Mt Rainier (trees blocking most of it). Gobbler's Knob is excellent. 360 degree view. Well worth going. Only 1.6 miles from Lake George. South Puyallup camping area is next to some interesting rock formation. But the river is too muddy to cook with. St Andrews' Lake is probably half of its max size. Aurora Lake has only little water left, with grass floating on it. Undrinkable. I cooked my dinner and breakfast at St Andrews' Lake. On the other side of St Andrews' Lake, a trail goes up to a butte for a good view. Klapatche Park has 4 sites. Very nice. Close to the trail. Sitting on the log by the campsite at night and watching the fading Mt Rainier and myriad of stars is my best time of the hike, or arguably one of the best backpacking experiences.

We went in via FS RD 59 to Glacier View trail. Go right at the junction, stopping at Goat Lake along the way, then getting to Rainier Border, then up to Lookout. Trail is nice and easy to follow, very peaceful going along beljica meadows, back into the forest, lots of up and down on this trail. We were so EXCITED to reach the LO! Weather was changing constantly and we hung out up here for over an hour watching the clouds go in and out and wondering if we would ever get the full on shot we wanted. But it was almost better not, more dramatic and mysterious looking with just pieces of mountain showing at all different times. We ate and laughed and shot LOTS of photos. The best saying was "BUT LOOK AT THE MOUNTAIN NOW!" We finally decided to head down and the girls said let's tag george lake too, i thought about that up, but when are we doing to have the chance again, so we cruised downhill all the way. It was a quick decend. The lake was green/blue gorgeous and the shelter & cabin were really cool. We filtered water and rested then headed back up and back the way we came. Long day but worth every step.

My husband and I backpacked to Lake George starting, Friday, August 3, 2012. We started about noon on a warm day. Going up West Side Road was not bad. We hiked to Round Pass where the Lake George trailhead was located on the left. When we reached the lake, it was so emerald green, really beautiful and serene. We were the only ones there so we chose campsite 5 as it had a nice lake view and was close to water. There were hardly any bugs, it was great. My husband and I were the only ones staying at the campground. We did not even have to put our rain fly on our tent as the weather was great! On Saturday, we decided to hike up to Gobblers Nob Lookout, then hike to Goat Lake. There were some small spots of snow on the trail to Gobblers Nob, the trail was really good. The avalanche lillies were beautiful! At Gobblers Nob the views were so awesome! We could see Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Hood. Also had a great view of Mt. Wow and Mt. Beljica. After Gobblers Nob Lookout, we hiked to Goat Lake. The trail to Goat Lake is quite narrow with lots of over growth, but the trail can be seen. Goat Lake was also beautiful. We had a nice lunch there then headed back to our campsite at Lake George. When we got back to our campsite, there were still no other campers in site, so we had the area to ourselves again, it was so quiet. On Sunday, after a nice breakfast, we got our backpacks ready to head back down to our vehicle. We had a wonderful three days. Great lakes, lookout, seclusion and trails.

We tried to reach Gobbler's Knob via the Lake Christine trail. Unfortunately a critical trail junction just beyond Lake Christine is unmarked, we missed it and ended up on the summit of Mt. Beljica. If you go, look for a short chunk of log that is sitting at the trail intersection. There are no signs and there are several trails leading off in the general area, most going to camp sites and thus going nowhere. If you are on the right trail you will come to a trail junction near Beljica Meadows which is signed, but this is after you have traveled downhill for quite a way. We had an exceptionally clear and sunny day. The view of Mt. Rainier for the top of Beljica is incredible. The road to the Lake Christine trailhead is very rough, recommended for high clearance vehicles only.

Our group from Olympia picked a perfect late autumn day for this hike. The USFS approach road has been recently brushed out, but the road surface is not great. Lots of big chuckholes. 2WD vehicles can make it, but slow going. At the trailhead, we filled out the USFS Wilderness permit forms. About 0.3 miles along, the first stream crossing is a bit tricky, but we hopped rocks without incident. There's a number of very wet sections along the trail as it meanders past lovely meadows. The last half mile approaching Goat Lake has some very wet areas - this trail could really use some help. From Goat Lake, we headed uphill, crossing into the National Park. There are half a dozen blowdowns over the trail in this area, none causing any great difficulty. The trail is quite brushy as you approach the ridge. At Gobblers Knob, we enjoyed grand views & ate lunch sitting on the catwalk surrounding the lookout cab. THEM, Olympia.