Beautiful, rainy Sunday for a hike! I hiked to Rachel and Rampart Lakes. Gaia recorded round trip distance at 9.03 miles (although, that includes any off trail wandering, either lost or for picture purposes, so it may not be completely accurate). Elevation gain - 2403 ft. Total moving time - 5:14.
Parking/Road - The road in is in good condition. There are a few potholes to watch out for but easy to avoid. I arrived at the TH around 6:00am to about 15 cars in the upper lot. I assume most were overnighters since I saw a few people coming down. There was still parking available. When I came back down around 12pm, a few more people had arrived, but there were still spots available.
Trail Conditions - Very rocky and rooty in places. There are some log crossings/stream crossings. It can also be hard to follow at times. I would recommend using a map/GPS to make sure you’re headed in the right direction. But the trail is BEAUTIFUL. My favorite part was seeing Hitbox in the distance. There are also some tight squeezes through shrubbery taller than you, but I liked it. It was a bit cloudy/drizzly, but everything still looked amazing.
Trail Difficulty - WOW does it get steep towards the end. At about the 2-2.5mi mark, the ascent starts gaining fast. Once you reach Rachel Lake, there are some nice areas to take a break at. I chose to hike a little further down to the beach area on the right end of the lake. The trail up to Rampart is also very steep. And very rocky. The loose dirt also made for a few slips. Poles were helpful both up and down!
Creatures/Critters/Bugs - I saw some chipmunks. No other critters unfortunately:(. The bugs were not bad. The only real annoyance were the spider webs. How can there be so many??
Overall, the views made up for all the pain. Would recommend. Prepare to break a sweat, though. Also, saw ~15 people on the trail and everyone was awesome! Love the community.
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