Rachel Lake, Rampart Ridge - Rampart Lakes & Alta Mountain — Sunday, Jul. 26, 2020

Backpacked up to Rampart Lakes.  Gorgeous area but very hot and swarms of bugs--really bad.  Shade was hard to find.  On the day hike, up to Alta, I found a very nice knife, with case--looks expensive.  Found on the side of the trail, near first false summit.  Please write me, provide details, to retrieve. The resident goat visited our camp Monday night; he had a huge monitoring collar on and was very healthy and very mellow.  Hated the trail on the way down: the hell mile, first mile going down from Rachel, deserves its name--very steep.  Just tough with a heavy backpack.  It is all roots, big down-steps, some minor trail finding, and some rock climbing going down.  This section makes the last trail mile to Tuck and Robins Lake,  look like Green Lake.   Take at least 3 quarts of water on the up-climb, if you don't want to pump at Rachel.  Beautiful hike, but you have to earn it on a difficult path.