I heard about this hike on The Washington State Hiking Podcast (thanks Jennie and Craig!), in their episode about best swimming lakes. While the water was just a tad too cold (for me) to outright swim in, it was the perfect temperature for taking a refreshing plunge to cool off after the climb up to the lake. Then I just spent I'm not sure how long just sititing in the water up to my waist, watching the dragonflies and butterflies, enjoying the sunshine sparkling on the water, and relishing the solitude.
I guess in part because it was a Tuesday, and also because of the long drive on forest service roads to get the trailhead (it took me an hour to drive the 19.5 miles from Highway 2), but there were just two cars at the trailhead when I arrived at 11:00 am, and I met both those folks coming down, so by the time I got to the lake I had it all to myself.
For me the hike time was two hours up, two hours down. On this warm day I appreciated that it was shaded the whole way. Lots of blowdowns across the trail (I counted about 15), but most were easy to step over or duck under (with one exception that required real climbing over). I did not see one mosquito all day!
One other note: the WTA driving directions were very accurate except for the very last leg: it is 2 miles on FS 400, not a half a mile.
All and all a great day.
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