This report is for the Melakwa Lake Loop/Granite Mountain Circumnavigation/Melakwa-Pratt Lake Traverse/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-loop (and tacked on Granite Mt. itself). Conditions were pretty great the whole way, totally doable. Long day.
Parked in the lot for Franklin Falls and took the Denny Creek Trailhead. Started around 8a, not too many on the trail yet. Nothing eventful until a bit before Hemlock Pass - trail was filled with water in places but there were stones to cross and I stayed dry. Ducked under the downed trees with my daypack on, did have to get pretty low but totally passable.
There is still snow around Hemlock Pass, microspikes were very helpful but probably not required. Poles helped. There was a switchback in the snowfield that was confusing with the snow; I just cut straight up to the pass over snow to where I could see dry trail. Didn’t punch through the snow but sounds like other reports have.
Melakwa Lake was beautiful! Going to Upper Melakwa Lake looked kind of sketchy, snowy traverse right next to the water.
On to Tuscohatchie… lost the trail for a bit, found it, crossed a bunch of creeks formed along the trail. There was a little mud in places but only long-jumped once over a big patch. Pants were convenient, vegetation was high and close to the trail but it wasn’t bushwhacking. Lower Tuscohatchie Lake was nice, and a water refill.
Pratt Lake and Olallie Lake had nothing out of the ordinary. Skipped Talapus Lake because I didn’t need any more mileage. On to Granite Mountain - more miles but nothing out of the ordinary. Really started to slow down as the climb up Granite began. A couple of the creeks are dry but there is water near the top.
Granite Mountain itself still has snowfields over the normal trail so the alternate route over the boulder field is being used for the last half mile. It’s a lot more annoying than I remember the normal trail being, especially when tired and trying to avoid upclimb/downclimb/repeat, but fine. There’s a snow patch parallel to the trail that can be used, with risk of punching through the melting snow. I used the snow sections that seemed sturdier and took on/off microspikes a few times.
Clarity today was a perfect 4-volcanoes (Rainier, Adams barely peeking out, Glacier Peak, and Baker peeking out). Got a bit of glissading in descending the snowfields, be careful about runout/etc.
From the Pratt Lake Trailhead it’s a 3 mile road walk back to the parking lot. Annoying, it would be better to drop a second vehicle if you can, but a lot better than many other road walks. I did see tickets on cars at Pratt Lake Trailhead that were missing Forest Passes, make sure you follow the rules. There's a credit card pay station available.
Total: 22.0mi (minus a little glissading), 6600 ft elevation gain, a lot of liquids and snacks
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