On a Friday morning there were no cars at the Riley Camp trailhead upon arrival, and no other cars upon return in late afternoon. The Riley Camp Trail #64 has dozens of trees fallen across it, but all are easy enough to step over, climb over, crawl under, or walk around. The first four miles in forest offer no views and this late in the season few still blooming wildflowers—mostly sickletop lousewort and foamflower. At the 2015 Riley Creek Burn area, Mt. Adams comes into view, juicy ripe huckleberries present themselves for snacking, and meadows of fireweed and false hellebore and pearly everlasting stretch everywhere.
When the trail enters the forest again, ponds and tarns start appearing. At Luna Lake, fresh bear tracks in the sandy mud ran along one side, little tufts of sand at the end of each toe print showing where claws had dug in. Bugs were no problem—their season seems to be over, too. The flatness of Riley Meadow with its posts marking the trail and two milky-blue branches of Riley Creek, easily stepped across, contrasts sharply with the ups and downs of the rest of the hike up to the PCT. Many clumps of beautiful deep-blue mountain bog gentian were just budding.
Mt. Adams dominates the view from the PCT and the trail is more or less level compared to the Riley Camp Trail. I headed south on the PCT toward Burnt Rock. Here Riley Creek was rushing along with milky glacial melt, but presented no problem crossing, thanks to some well-placed rocks mid-stream. Every two or three minutes rockfall sounded from Pinnacle Glacier.
Shortly past Sheep Lake and just before the trail up Burnt Rock, three little stones helpfully marked the user trail to Crystal Lake. The well established trail was easy to follow. As it gains elevation, the views become astounding, and would have been even more so if there weren’t so much wildfire smoke in the air. Mountain peaks dominated the horizon in all directions. Mount Rainier appeared as a faint ghost of itself in the smoky haze.
The last bit of trail to the lake was a scramble, and then the lake suddenly appeared, perfectly reflecting Mount Adams, now looking rather bare of snow, but beautiful for all that. Round trip, according to Gaia GPS: 13.6 miles, 2,604 feet elevation gain.
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