Lake Ingalls — Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024

It was raining and raining hard as I left Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Issaquah.  Near the highpoint of I-90 near Rattlesnake Ridge, there was sun and blue sky to the east.  Rain ceased just after North Bend and there would be no further rain, only cloud, on my drive to Cle Elum (bakery closed on Tuesdays), the Teanaway  River Road, and the North Fork of the Teanaway dirt road (in surprisingly good shape given the lateness of the season; still blind spots, so drive carefully), almost to the trailhead parking for Long’s Pass, Lake Ingalls, and Esmeralda Basin (the lot was full and people were parking on the sides of the road just below the trailhead lot).  Used the relatively clean and supplied facilities and then started up with blue sky and sun behind me and dark cloud and mist before me.  I was anticipating rain.  Never happened.  The cloud and the cool breeze/wind made hiking a pleasure.  Sunflects made for great pictures from landscapes to understory plants (Figure 3).

Went all the way to Ingalls Lake (still cloud) and back.  Guidebook says 2500 feet of vertical, my GPS unit both up and down said the same; that is, 2,927 feet (ok: the 27 feet might be the vertical interval between where I parked and the trailhead parking lot.  An extra 400 feet would not have notice 50 years ago, but for someone 7 days away from a major new age group, it was cruel but offset by the scenery especially the subalpine larch.  6 hours round trip with, according to gps watch, one hour plus for lunch and photographs (waiting for the right sunflect).