Quick weekday jaunt to Marmot/Jade and Tuck/Robin! Separate trip reports for the latter.

These lakes got a lot of attention in recent years, and even on a Tuesday, all lakes were filled to capacity with backpackers. Trailhead parking is generally fine on weekdays, sharing with the Cathedral Rock / PCT trailhead. The road is rough, but we made it fine in a sedan.

A late start meant we pushed through the humid heat, with Hyas Lake providing little wind. A couple very large shaded sites line the sun-drenched shoreline. The mosquitoes and deer flies begin to swarm around 4000', and only get worse the higher you climb. If you have a headnet -- as ridiculous as they look -- absolutely bring it. Picaridin helped repel about half of the bites, but they're persistent.

Past the junction for Tuck/Robin, and after a few steps on the PCT, we turned into the Marmot Lake trail. You'll pass through meadows on relatively flat ground, crossing a large stream, making for a good water refill. You'll climb a ridge as you enter the forest, only to deceptively descend again less than half a mile after. Gradually climb as you follow the ridge up, until you reach the junction of Clarice and Marmot Lakes.

We decided to check out Clarice, and the trail was severely overgrown. I did a little bushwacking to clear some of the young alders growing into the trail. The trail gets difficult to follow as you reach the top, marked by a few cairns on top of fallen logs. The lake is decently sized, but we didn't push in to see if there were any campsites. 

Turning back, and moving onto the Marmot Lake trail, its also overgrown. A short climb reaches the lake. There is a toilet with a green nylon privacy shelter, but toilet paper was EVERYWHERE. Not just around the toilet seat, but on the trails in any direction for a good 20 paces. C'mon people.

There are very few sites at Marmot relative to the size of the lake, with a steep shoreline making flat camp surfaces scarce. We saw maybe 8-10 sites dispersed along the entire shoreline. 

Follow the narrow trail on the south shore for Jade Lake, where a talus covers a creek flowing into Marmot. The trail gets hard to follow here, so pay attention to the cairns. The slope is very steep and unstable, so give folks behind you a couple feet to avoid rocks tumbling below. Keep climbing until you reach the top of the pass, where a meadow breaks out.

We saw two marmots here, scurrying under rocks hiding from the late afternoon sun. Obviously, I had to pose for one with my Marmot jacket on, and Marmot Lake in the distance. We passed by a small pond, and the larger No Name Lake for some Mt Rainier-esque meadows. There are 2-3 sites at the southern end of No Name Lake, which also overlook Jade Lake.

Jade is incredibly popular -- even given the road, trail length, and rugged boothpath -- because its a glacial lake with that milky blue water. About half the folks I saw had large DSLR cameras hanging from their neck. It also was a jarring surprise when I arrived, to see:

• a discarded peach on the side of the trail
• a drone hovering above a camp
• a speaker playing music at another camp
• toilet paper, again
• a bear hang so low I could kick the bag
• folks disregarding signs indicating footpaths were closed for restoration

This is a fragile alpine meadow, and normalizing this behavior means other folks will normalize it at other lakes. Wouldn't be surprised if this becomes another Blanca situation by the end of summer.

We saw at least 12-14 groups camped, with more probably perched away from the water, and more than the number of sites available. Weekends would probably be packed. Get cozy with your neighbors, you'll likely have traffic through your camp. There are a number of paths that people go down, only to find a dead end -- these are probably poop trails, and each footstep prevents the meadows from regrowing. 

Mosquitoes were terrible, and a number of folks had headnets on. They're particularly pervasive after 6pm. We watched sunset at a creek draining into Jade, and was kept company by three frogs that didn't feel the need to defend us from bugs :(

There is a faint trail on the snow climbing up to Pea Soup Lake. It will melt out later in the year, but it is a notably dangerous hike when the snowpack is fragile. 

tl;dr -- lake is pretty, and is like other glacial lakes in the Cascades. Be prepared for a rugged, loose trail; lots of people; and an absurd amount of mosquitoes.

Road into the trailhead is the washboard bumpy dirt ride that I remember, complete with creek crossing that I think went up a foot on the wheels, was happy to be in a high clearance vehicle.  Were a few open spots in each big area of parking on a Wednesday early afternoon. Hiked up to Marmot lake on Wednesday.  Did a side trip to Lake Clarice.  It is more of an alpine marsh than alpine lake, there were so many green plants growing in the lake that I didn't think it was worth the almost mile side trip off the trail to Marmot.  Marmot Lake was beautiful!  Trail was in very good condition on Deception pass to the intersection with the PCT, even saw some park rangers bringing lumbar up on horses to work the bridge by Little Hyas (although bridge did not seem in urgent need of work to me).  There were a number of blowdowns after intersection with PCT up to Marmot, nothing impassable but annoying as it got later and I got more tired.  Most of the wildflowers I saw were also above intersection of Deception pass and PCT and Marmot Lake, otherwise was mostly old growth forest.  Few patches of snow up near Marmot, and a few patches between Marmot and Jade, one that I walked around on the heather because it looked like it was melting out underneath and I didn't want to plunge through; nothing that needed microspikes or anything like that.  Only saw 2 other groups at Marmot.  Mosquitoes were bad until after dark and was glad to have my hat with bug net along. Although I had hiket up in a tank top and shorts it got a little chilly overnight being at 4900 feet and I was glad I had packed layers.  Thursday woke up early and did a "day hike" to No Name/Jade Lake; Jake lake was also absolutely gorgeous!  My trail description had said it was a mile to Jade lake, which it may be from the far edge of Marmot but was more like 2 miles from where I camped and was a 700 foot climb over the scree field.  Carions were pretty easy to follow and absolutely worth the side trip!  Decided to take the long way down and did 5 miles of the PCT between Cathedral Rock and Deception pass.  Also lots of blowdowns on that, even more than the trail to Marmot; I lost the trail at one point and wandered into someone's campsite, and was glad to have GPS on my phone to find my way back on the trail.  The higher big creek crossing on that part of the PCT was fine.  The lower one was a gushing torrent of water with a very small trunk to balance on.  My dog ended up getting swept up in the current, thank you to the PCT trail angel that happened to be crossing going the other way and jumped in to help my pup and then carried him to the other side; I never even got your name but you are my hero!  So that creek crossing was fine for a person, treking poles definitely helped balance on the skinny log crossing, but take care if you have a furry friend along.  The mosquitoes were also terrible after the lower big creek crossing and intersection with Cathedral Rock trail, I saw more than one person hiking with the mesh net on their face and in extra layers despite the heat just for the bug protection. Trail was in very good shape once I got off the PCT and onto Cathedral Rock trail.  Spent the 2nd night by Squaw Lake.  The mosquitoes were even worse here than at Marmot, but it was a very pretty spot to camp and lounged by lake in the morning enjoying the view.  Squad Lake was busier than Marmot, as one might expect closer to the trailhead, and also saw some trailworkers with all their tools in camp.  Only saw a few groups as I went down to the trailhead but parking lot was packed with cars lined up way down the road, as one might expect Friday early afternoon.  If I had it to do over I would do it as an in and out to Marmot and Jade Lake, the PCT had some nice views but it was too many miles in one day for me.

Got to the Deception Pass/Tucquala Meadows trailhead around 9:00 PM on Friday night, with the intention of camping at Hyas Lake that night and Marmot Lake on Saturday night, with a day trip to Jade Lake. Driving in on that dirt road in was rough; lots of potholes and you do have to drive through a pretty deep creek, which you CAN get through with a lower-clearance vehicle (I mean, we did!), but I would be slow and careful.

When we got to the dirt parking lot, it was practically full; we had to be a little clever in how we parked our car to get a spot! Took about an hour and a half of walking along very flat trail for us to get to Hyas and to find a campsite. There are plenty along the lake, and we found several after passing many an occupied site on lower half of the lake. The mosquitoes are pretty ruthless around this trail, and you would miserable if you didn't bring bug spray. Bring bug spray, and be prepared to use it liberally!

Early Saturday morning, we packed up camp and were back on trail by 7:30 AM. We passed very few people on our way to Marmot. The trail can be steep ascending at times, but with a big section where you're slowly descending. There are some muddy spots and stream crossings that can be annoying if you don't have waterproof footwear, and many fallen trees to climb over/under. Some places are a little overgrown. There are some minor, small snowfields that no one should really have issues with. All that aside, the trail to Marmot is easy to follow.

We saw a junction to either Marmot or Lake Clarice, and decided to check out Lake Clarice before we got to Marmot. It was a nice side-trip; it's about 3/4 of a mile to get there of mildly declining, somewhat overgrown trail. There wasn't anywhere we could see to camp, but it was a pretty lake! It took us about an hour for this detour.

As we got closer to Marmot in the late morning, we passed many more people leaving camp. Although it was pretty crowded, we had plenty of spots to choose from when we got to Marmot because we got there early, and there are a lot of sites. It took us about 5 hours to get from Hyas to Marmot, including our detour to Clarice.

We set up camp and set out for Jade Lake. The "trail" isn't always clear, but you just keep heading south, hugging along Marmot until the trail disappears, and then you start following the cairns. This part of the hike was steep. There's a lot of boulder-field navigation, and at one point you're basically scaling a waterfall. Be ready to use your hands! Still, although Marmot is beautiful, Jade is something else. The glacial water is an incredible color that I've never seen before in nature. We decided to jump in and wow that water is really cold! We saw some camps set up around Jade, but I personally would have had a difficult time navigating on all of those steep and rocky areas with my entire pack.

After heading back to camp (poles were helpful on the way down) and staying at Marmot overnight, we packed up and headed out from camp around 9:00 AM Sunday morning. Lots of people were headed out around the same time. The uphill on the descent was a little rough because there's very little tree cover. Got back to the trailhead almost exactly 4.5 hours later. On our way out, we saw many cars parked on the side of the road, so it must have been pretty crowded on Saturday!