One word describes the highlight of this hike, GOATS! But I get ahead of myself.

There were a lot of deer and turkeys on the drive from Cle Elum to the trailhead. Be on the lookout as several of the deer were in or crossing the road. We arrived at the trailhead around 8:15 and there were several cars in the lot already. Road was not too bad with all of the larger potholes being before the horse camp. After that it was washboards but easily navigable by any type of vehicle overall.

The hike up through the forest to Ingalls Pass was long but the switchbacks and sidehilling trail meant for a lower grade uphill, which I did not mind at all. TONS of wildflowers on this hike. Probably saw around 2 dozen different ones? Paintbrushes in red, orange and yellow. We also saw Mt. Rainier through a gap in the closer hills as we got higher up and out of the trees.

My biggest lesson on this hike was to preview the trail on Alltrails. I did not look too closely at the topo online and was thinking once at Ingalls Pass the trail just dropped down to the lake. Oh no my friends, it does not! You have to get across Headlight Basin and surmount another short but challenging uphill hike to the second pass that leads to Ingalls Lake. 

We chose the western route around Headlight that wraps around the upper part of the basin going past a nice little meadow and crossing a couple of streams. Option two takes you to the bottom of the basin, but then it seems like you have a lot more uphill to get to the second pass. A shorter route but more up and down.

Once the trails meet up again the fun starts. The trail up to the second pass is a hunt at times. There appear to be multiple routes available at some places and then you hit the occasional dead end that takes some consideration. The cairns were helpful but more so was having the alltrails map downloaded. There were a couple spots where the "step" up was more of a sit on your butt and swings your legs up type move. But our group of 4, all in our 50's, managed to get up there.

We did not have any issues with mosquitos while at the lake. A lot of earlier reports mentioned this being a problem but not when we were there. However, lots of flies buzzing us and trying to bite us when taking breaks. 

We had not seen any large wildlife on the hike up and had been at the lake for about 30 minutes or so when a few goats appeared on top of the ridge to the southeast of the lake. And then more kept showing up until there were 7 total, 5 adults and 2 kids. So, so awesome to have these visitors. Made the whole hike extra special and worth the time it took. They stayed up high and watched us the whole time until we left. One even poked it's head over the ridge to make sure we were heading down the other side of the pass, presumably before they all headed down to the lake.

Lesson #2 on this hike. I didn't take extra water to keep the pack weight down knowing there were refill options. I started with 2l in my pack plus an extra liter in a bottle. I did refill, but only about 1/2 of my empty bottle thinking I would not use as much water on the downhill. Oops! Once back over Ingalls Pass it got toasty. I drank as much on the way down as I did going up and ran out about 1-1/2 miles from the trailhead. Next time I will refill everything when I have the chance.

This ended up being a pretty long day. Right around 8 hours total time on the trail including breaks and time at the lake. Temps were in the mid 80's at the trailhead when we finished. We ended the day with burgers and shakes at the Red Arrow in Cle Elum. Highly recommend!

This marked fifteen years, nearly to the day, since our last trip here (last time we got engaged!). Our group of six (four adults and two twelve-year-olds) did an overnight into Headlight Basin. Flowers, flowers, flowers! So many of the favorites were on display. Bugs were not bad in the basin, though we did use a Thermacell device in the evening the next morning. From Headlight Basin we visited the lake, of course. That portion of this hike is what makes it a "hard" rating, I suspect, as the trail gets rough and is easy to lose in spots. We saw a mama and baby goat from a distance. On returning to camp, found that first one, then ultimately four large male goats had decided to join us for the night. They were not aggressive, but never really left, either. They circled and browsed around the camp all night. 

On our way in, we spoke with a couple backpacking in with a dog, reminding them that dogs are not allowed in the basin. The response was "What are we supposed to do?" Later on, we came across their campsite, at the lake, on a meadow across from a "closed for restoration" sign. Other than the conversation my wife had with them earlier, there seems to be very little else we can actually do about this. If they're going to ignore the posted signs (no dogs, no camping at the lake, etc.), they're going to ignore the signs. We took the opportunity to remind the kids of their own responsibility, and owned up to the relative powerlessness to get other people to behave responsibly. At least they didn't have a fire and weren't flying drones. 

Ultimately, our friends and the kids enjoyed the visit, though I think the boys could have done without the hike to the lake and would have preferred just staying at camp in their hammocks.

NOTE: We found a pair of women's size 7 La Sportiva boots, with a pair of socks (with foxes on them) at the trailhead. If these were yours, please get in touch! Happy to coordinate a return.

Had a great early morning hike to Lake Ingalls.  The weather was beautiful, the bugs not so much.  We went through the valley on the way to the lake and the mosquito intensity increased as you got closer to the lake, it was really pretty incredible the number of mosquitoes swarming around.  I was planning on taking some quick pictures of the lake and to move away from the mosquitoes; but we saw a goat and marmot at the lake and needed to take a few pics.  We took the high route on the way back and the number of mosquitoes went down the farther we got from the lake, and after going over the saddle there were very few.  We did see two more goats on the way out with one that was very interested in a salty spot by a tree right on the trail, and wasn't moving, so we waited a bit and then walked around him.  The rest of the trip back was uneventful.  There were some flowers on trail, mostly as you approached the trail.  All the pictures were taken with the telephoto lens that I lugged up the mountain with the hope that I'd see some goats.

It took us 3.5 hours up and about 2.5 hours down. 

Bugs were really a nuisance early morning. Carry a bug spray. 

There are patches of snow on the trail. We did not need spikes.

Got lucky and saw a few mountain goats today.

The last one mile from the lake needs some caution. Its hard to see the trail at all times. As indicated in the previous trip reports, we located the Cairns and also used Alltrails map to stay on the trail. 

Most of the trail is exposed and without shade. Carry sunscreen.

Allthough Alltrails and WTA both say roughly 9 miles RT, my strava recorded 10.8 miles RT and 2900 ft elevation gain.

We decided to not walk around the lake. It would have added another mile or so. We were tired and wanted to get back home.

We got amazing views of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams while on the trail.

Highly recommend!

Quick summary: 20 mile roundtrip - trailhead -> ingalls, Jack Creek, Van Epps, Esmeralda Basin -> trailhead. Trail impossible on backside, GPS only.  Also, a little creepy because I saw no one for about 4 hours in some pretty remote country where they still haven't found the kid murderer. May still be hiding out in there and if you take this route you will see why it is pretty reasonable that he could be in there hiding.  For what its worth, I didn't see a single boot print, recent fire circle, broken twigs or grass down from any humans in the entire valley.  Plenty of big bear prints -- but no signs that anyone else had been in there this year including search parties for that guy.

Detailed: Planned out a long trail run/hike to get some mileage, vertical, and time on feet in for an upcoming ultra race.  Despite hiking everywhere else seemingly, I had never done Ingalls-- the legendary crowds always had scared me off. Given the state of the trail in this loop, figured I would leave a few notes.  

I left Esmeralda Trailhead (Lake Ingalls) at 5:45AM -- FYI, plenty of spots early -- not the case later in the day, but this is a very busy trial head. Drop toliet in decent shape, ample room for overflow parking down the road. 

Weather: classic awesome summer day. Clear, cool, damp from morning dew -- a bit windy given the shift to onshore flow on the West side. 

Climb to Ingalls... a little runnable in sections, but mostly an uphill climb. Last few scrambles up to Ingalls were fun. Crested Ingalls basin ~ 6:50, mountain goat chomping and uninterested in me.  Ingalls lake proper by 7:30. Sceneary around there is epic -- sun rising behind Stuart and all the things, this is Enchantments level stuff without the larches. Took me a few min to figure out the scramble along the left shore (northwest). There was still a bit of snow between the water edge and large boulders. Melting had created a bit of a bergschrund effect that was pretty deep. Snow was super slippery and combined with slope angle almost guaranteed an early morning slide into the water, so I found a route higher.  This route finding persisted nearly the entire length of the shore. Switching back and forth from the actual strail to higher boulders and scrambles to make it around. Totally doable with a little awareness, but slow going.  In another week -- likely a non issue. Hard to gauge camping spots here. maybe southside/east side on the slick rock or in the meadow before hitting Ingalls.  Its pretty slim pickings up there for campsites despite popularity.

disclaimer: I am a very good navigator, rarely use GPS. This was humbling. 

Made it to the end of the Lake and thus started my afternoon of route finding. Immediately got off trail 50 yards from the Lake.  Meant to take the direct route to Stuart Pass, ended up following down to the valley an picking up Ingalls creek trail back up the hill to Stuart pass. Over Stuart Pass into Jack Creek Trail -- things are fine for about .5 mile then it falls apart. Trail hasn't been maintained and so it sort of disappears into the woods. You can follow it for another .5 then its GPS time.  rolling down valley through thick understory switch backs trail was really hard, if not impossible to follow.  Somewhat runnable when the trail was obvious.

Once you hit the burn area -- forget it. you are walking, crawling, climbing, scrambling, tripping, falling, and getting stabbed with broken snags and sticks for the next 3.5 hours.  I clocked a mile segment at 48 minutes to give you some sense and I was trying to trot a bit when I could. Its a war zone.  This burn was several years back an the problem is that now the understory has grown back and obliterated any sense of the trail. You are bushwhacking, falling and stumbling for miles.  I followed it all the way down the valley got within about .5 of the trail junction to head up Van Epps and said screw it and just started going cross country to meet on the other side. river was manageable, I dunked my shoes several times. oh well. 

the trail up Van Epps all the way to the jeep trail near the Van Epps mine was just as bad, you are basically going cross-country. The trail is completely gone. 

Once on the rocky Jeep trail, things are fine (uphill but fine). started to run again up hill to Van Epps Pass. From there, navigate the roads and pickup 1226.2 under the shadow of Ingalls Peak and ride that all the way to Esmeralda Basin. Very runnable, easy to follow--- got a good flow going here. Plenty of water to fill up. 

Some campers at Esmeralda Basin, cool place -- a few nice big spots, some water in the outflows -- the pond will dry up in a week or two and I think water will be tough here right be camp.  long hot climb to the top of the ridge under Fortune Peak (super impressive scree field -- basically the entire mountain is scree). Crazy awesome Rainier views on the backside head back to Esmeralda Trailhead. After some switch backs on unstable rock, very runnable and downhill joyride all the way to the car for a few miles. 

took me about 6.5 hours start to finish which is about 2 hours longer than it should have for vert and distance.