Shemmayemma (age 8) and I planned a 5 day, 35 mile backpack loop following Doug Lorain’s suggestion in his book, Backpacking Washington.

Day 1: got to trailhead at Lily basin at 10 am and headed out at 10:20. We arranged a drop off so we could hike through to our car at Packwood Lake TH. The road is fine with the significant exception of a deep ravine around mile 8. We appreciated the high clearance of our SUV. A car would probably make it, but it might bottom out pretty bad.

This trail has been vastly improved since I last hiked it 7 years ago. All the blowdowns have been taken out. It’s a great trail now - especially since hardly anyone uses it. After you cross over into Lily Basin it’s nonstop views to the Angry Mountain Trail JCT, and from there just a short jog over to the Heart Lake JCT. Heart Lake is a long drop down from the trail, much more than we planned. It’s also incredibly bug-infested. I was coated with flies trying to filter water. Because of this we opted to camp above the lake, where the bugs were just slightly better. After the flies died down the mosquitoes were out in force. Finally, just before dusk, all the bugs went to bed.

Day 2: off at 8 am and heading around the Heart Lake basin. The scenery improves steadily with big views of the Goat Rocks and eventually, Jordan Basin and the Goat Ridge. There are two snowfields to cross and one is a bit treacherous so I recommend microspikes and/or a pole. At the Hawkeye Point use trail JCT we dropped our packs and hoofed it up to the top. Spectactular scenery and well worth the side trip. Amazing view of Old Snowy and Goat Lake, as well as Mt. Rainier. The haze was really bad on this trip and Mt. Adams was entirely obscured for most of the trip, but the scenery was still terrific. We saw a large herd of goats on a glacier above Goat Lake. After a quick lunch we worked our way down and then around to Goat Lake, great place for a cold foot soak and mercifully bug-free. The camping here is wide open and plentiful and one of the better camping areas on this trip. And from here, we hiked down to Alpine, just above Snowgrass, for fresh water, lots of camping, lots of people, and lots more flies. Somewhat better than Heart Lake but we still wore head nets all evening.

Day 3: our ‘biggest day’, a planned 7.5 mi up to Old Snowy on the PCT hiker route, then down to Packwood saddle where we planned to camp for the night. The trail is great but the heat was tremendous, so we were glad we started early. Shemma is a strong hiker and we were up to Old Snowy by 10 am. We were so early we decided to tack on the side trip of an ascent up Old Snowy itself. Shemma loved making his first ‘ascent’ and reveled in the views of Mt. Gilbert and Ives Peak. From there we worked our way down to the PCT and then along the Knife Edge, then more very hot up and down before reaching Elk Pass and the turnoff for the PCT. We saw a large herd of goats below Mt. Gilbert and a couple loners below Packwood Glacier. After a rest on the snowfield near Elk Pass, we tackled the last mile and a half descent into Packwood Saddle, our planned stop for the night.

En route we were overtaken by several groups rerouting off the PCT due to the Miriam Fire near White Pass, as well as those concerned about the new Clear Fork Fire southwest of there (and closer to Coyote Ridge). Because of this a large group of hikers congregated at Packwood Saddle making alternate plans. Most elected to descend Lake Creek Trail to Packwood Lake rather than linger on the ridge overnight. We examined our options and none were good. Asking Shemma to hike another 6 steep downhill miles that late in the afternoon was tough but he’s a great sport, and we headed downhill, determined not to camp in the dark, overgrown forest. The trail is pretty poorly maintained at the top. There are tons of down trees, trail hard to find at times. It’s a steep descent. All in all, pretty darn exhausting. By the end we were spent. We were about to just throw our tent up in any old flat spot we could find in the forest when we ran into two guys who told us the Lake was just five minutes away. Invigorated, we soldiered on and quickly found the lake and a glorious, bug free campsite. We took a quick swim, cooked up some grub, and collapsed into a great sleep after a truly epic day of 14 miles with 2000 ft of up and 5000 ft of down. Shemma is a stud!

Day 4: We slept in today and enjoyed the last day of our unexpectedly short trip. We opted to head out rather than spend another day camped at Packwood Lake but that would have been a lot of fun, as well. The lake is much bigger, much more beautiful, and much more peaceful/less populated than I knew. Have to come back some time. The hike to Packwood dam is quick and easy. From the dam to the road is not quite the flat forest amble we anticipated - there are some significant ups and downs along the way - but all in all we made great time. We were happy to see the car and celebrate with pizza and root beer in town.

Really fantastic journey, would do it again in a heartbeat but would like to spend the planned third night up on Coyote Ridge and fourth night at Lost Lake, but will have to be some other time. This is a wonderful trip.

Beautiful hike but the bugs below the tree line were SO THICK and BITING to the point I wanted to cry the whole hike down! We traveled in a clockwise route up to Goat Lake to Snow Grass Flats then Lily Basin and back to the car.  It was a nice (not too hot) summer day, and goat lake was gorgeous with it's deep teal blue color.  I just could have done without all the bugs! No amount of deet deep woods would detour them.  I think I practically ran down the hill once I hit the treeline because I was just so miserable

What started out as a four-night, leisurely car shuttle route to explore the NW quadrant of Goat Rocks, turned into a three-nighter, followed by a hasty evacuation due to a relentless thunder storm. We completed the clockwise route, just quicker than planned, beginning at the Lily Lake TH (also known as the Clear Fork Trail #61), followed it to its junction with the PCT at Tieton Pass, then followed the PCT south to the Snowgrass Flats area. From there we hiked cross country to pick up the Lily Basin Trail #86 and followed it (eventually racing) out to its trail head under a barrage of hail, thunder and lightning. Bugs were not a problem on the way out.

Roads to trail heads: most of the route to the Lily Lake TH is in very good condition except for the final quarter - half mile which is very rough and rocky. No problems for standard pickups or Outbacks but regular autos could lose their oil pans if careless. The road to Lily Basin TH is in very good condition except for one, quite deep, washed-out trench across a steep pitch in the road a couple of miles before the trail head. Without high clearance and FWD, you'll likely bottom out and just spin your tires trying to navigate over it.

The trails: First off, be aware the Lily Lake trail does not take you within visual of the lake - never saw it, nor even a hint of a social trail that would have led to it. There has to be one but not one of the six of us saw one. The trail however was cleared of fallen trees this spring all the way to Tieton Pass so that much was great. The tread is deteriorated and overgrown in a few places but nothing a novice couldn't handle. Coyote Creek flooded its banks and wiped out quite a swath of terrain. Crossing the creek is simple and knowing where to head to cross is sort of marked with blue and red plastic tape. Be prepared to poke around a bit to discover where the trail picks up on the other side.

The PCT up the Knife Edge is quite rocky (loose), and way steeper than it was 15 years ago when I last hiked it. I think this earth-tilt thing is for real. Traversing Old Snowy was no problem - one small snow patch with decent foot impressions otherwise you're on rock the entire stretch. The stretch of trail down to Snowgrass Flat is impressively torn up with large rocks cluttering most of it. Hard to imagine all of that rock debris is due to just human feet.

The Lily Basin trail is truly a mixed bag. From Snowgrass flat up past Goat Lake to its junction with Hawkeye Point it's in pretty decent shape except for the really steep stretches where the tread is littered with loose rock. The notorious snow bank just north of the junction is alive and well. Three of the group elected to detour around below it. Three of us kicked steps, very carefully, across it and made it to within five feet of the tread below it, but at that point the bank was so steep we lost traction and slid off. Fortunately, it was only a five foot drop to the trail. Two of us 'stuck' the dismount, one continued with a short dirt and rock glissade. Detouring below it requires a very delicate descent, or a truly laborious grunt back up depending on which direction you're traveling. The remainder of the path up to the junction with the Angry Mountain trail is a bit harder to evaluate. We were at Heart Lake when the storm descended and the entire trail up to that junction was a raging stream of muddy water. Before the deluge, I'm pretty sure it was in good shape.

The really fun part came after the Angry Mt. jct. The following 2.5 miles was covered in up to 3" of slushy hail. Of that stretch the truly rotten part was the entire traverse of the west side of the Johnson massive. It's a good mile of very lose tread, nonexistent tread, and around a dozen steep gullies to get over. None were more than five feet deep or very wide, but at the time most were filled with rushing brown water and the lose, crumbly "moraines" on each side sometimes gave away when ascending or descending them. Had it not been for the residual hail, the remainder of the trail would have been an absolute treat. Once below around 5200' the hail disappeared and we happily cruzed the rest of the way. Gratefully, the entire path had recently been cleared, and there was an impressive number of fresh cleared tree-fall. The fragrance from all of the fresh cutting took "forest bathing" to an extreme!

For a delightful and at times stunning day-hike, hiking the Lily Basin trail up to the start of the Johnson traverse and then turning around would be a charmer if you don't mind the drive.

Bugs: very few mosquitoes anywhere along our route. Black Flies made up for it, particularly at the lower elevations. Falling hail is a very effective deterrent.

Flowers: in full bloom at the lowest elevations, in mid bloom at the highest.

This was an overnighter to Heart Lake on Lily Basin Trail #86 from 7-28-19 to 7-29-18 for a 15 mile round trip, not counting the time in camp, that took 5hrs going in and 2500ft elevation gain and 3.75 hrs return.

FR48 is in good condition with few potholes but there is one spot around 5.2. miles in with a deep runoff rut that crosses the road. Tricky for low clearance vehicles. One person had to unload his horses from the trailer and slowly drive across then reload. There were 4-5 cars at the trailhead with not much room to spare. 

The start of Trail #86 is a gradual incline for a few miles then you start hiking on the forested ridge. The trail does have some steep grades now.  At 4.2 miles you get good views as the trees thin out.  You’ll cross the ridge once and cross back then finally lose trees. There is plenty of water here…but no flowing water until this point.

At 5.2 miles in your hiking on the West Slope of Johnson Peak following a cirque around to Angry Mountain. This section is 90% scree and crosses 4-5 glacial runoffs. In years past…there was a deep one that required hiking down 10ft into the runoff, crossing the water, then a wall of dirt, mud with no handholds to get out. Difficult to cross.  HOWEVER, this year…it was fixed!!! I ran across someone with horses with Back Country Horsemen clearing blow-downs making his way for Heart Lake. He told me last year they dynamited that section making it VERY EASY to get across. IT survived the winter and was a breeze to get across! THANKS!

The junction with Angry Mountain Trail #90 is beautiful and a great place for a rest. Your on the alpine ridge. An old sign marks the junction and the views are everywhere. From there it’s only .5 miles to Heart Lake taking an unmarked trail down to the right. I saw one tent on the way down and ran across a 10 person Boy Scout Troop visiting the area on a 8 day trek starting at Packwood Lake. It took a long time, but they found a good spot for all of them.

There are 5 or so established camping sites here. One right off the lake in the meadow, one near the lakes entrance, one near the outlet and a couple other smaller sites above either side of the lake. However, it WAS BUGGY!!! You couldn’t sit still without being swarmed with flies. Long sleeves were a must. I camped off the trail in a dry grassy area with a fire ring. No matter where you were, meadow or forest…it was buggy and DEET didn't help. Wind helped a lot but was not constant. Bring long sleeves.

The night was beautiful! Clear view of the cirque around Heart Lake, the stars and a Moon Rise over Hawkeye Point. Gorgeous. 

The return trip was uneventful and quick. You don’t realize how much and gradually you climbed until you’re going back. A fun trip…however next time I’d like to pass Heart Lake and camp at Jordan Basin near Goat Lake, for a 2-3 day point-to-point. 

In short, this trail has little water.

We started what was supposed to be a four day hike at the Lilly Basin Trailhead.  We had dropped our car at the Packwood Lake Trailhead and took a shuttle to the Lilly Basin Trailhead. 

The shuttle ride did not go well.  We used The Hiker's Shuttle.  The shuttle lady, Randy, was nice, but only had a small car and was the only shuttle we could find in the town.  We had understood that she knew the back roads, but she didn't.  We went from 12 to road 48 to get to the trailhead.  She felt like the road was too long and we were in the wrong place, so we had to drive back down, 20 minutes, and follow every landmark on our topo map to know exactly where we were.  As we got closer to the top, we came upon a small dip and washout in the road.  Our driver would not cross it, even though a car could easily cross it very slowly.  We were maybe 4 miles from our trailhead at that point so we got out and started walking, and it had gotten to be late in the day.  Temps were unseasonably warm and relative humidity was very low (no clouds in the sky).

Our map showed a small creek crossing the road close to the trailhead, where we planned to replenish water.  It was bone dry, as all the snow is gone from this immediate area this year.  We started up the trail and stopped somewhere in the middle of the ridge as we were out of daylight and spent the night.  We crossed maybe 10 fallen trees in that length.

We woke up with basically no water, hiked another mile up, and then decided that we had no choice but to hike back down, since the only known water was at Heart Lake, too far to safely hike with no water.  We hiked back.  We then went and did shorter hikes the next several days.

If doing this hike again, including the road portion, I would take a minimum of 3 liters of water per person.

The mosquitoes are terrible this year in Goat Rocks.  I would recommend a mosquito net and either lots of clothes or plenty of DEET.

By the way, if you take 48 up to this trailhead, just follow the main road all the way up until you pass the mine, and the trailhead is another, say, 4 miles past that and has a nice trailhead sign.  You can ignore all the other logging roads as they are obviously less maintained.  Just keep going up. It's maybe a 14 mile gravel road.  A high clearance vehicle would be a little nicer, but I think you can make it with a small car if you have a patient and willing driver.