Rachel Lake, Rampart Ridge Backdoor & Margaret Lake — Friday, Aug. 1, 2014

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

A friend and I linked together a couple of popular trails and tossed in some bush whacking for good measure. Our day was perfect. A long string of alpine ponds, lakes, and tarns all strung together just a few miles from I-90. Our day started by dropping off bicycles up a dirt road near Rock Rabbit and Stones Throw lakes. From there it was an easy 20minute drive over to Box Canyon and the Rachel Lake trailhead. There was a bit of a crowd at 9 AM getting out of the parking lot. Some folks were there for day hikes and others getting ready to camp. Trail #1313 to Rachel Lake is heavily used with more than a few exposed roots. The terrain is varied though never terribly difficult with good views of Box Ridge to the right. After an hour or more Rachel Lake welcomed us but we had much to do so we didn’t stop to soak it in. Continuing upwards around the lake we went to Rampart/Alta Ridge. The Rampart Lakes were too much to withstand. Out came the food and we luxuriated on a small island in one of the lakes. Water gurgled down from another just-oh-so-much higher lake above. Umm, heaven. Looking to the south we could make out a faint trail towards the ridge. This next 3 or so miles over to Lake Lillian were amazing. There were some steep trails ascending alongside talus slopes, a few spots of snow, but mostly there were emerald green meadows with warm little ponds barely hanging onto their status as such. Waterfalls connected these little ponds like a string of alpine pearls strung around the neck of Rampart Ridge. Lake Lillian came all too soon. A steep trail descended to the lake’s outlet and where I knew the trail to Lake Margaret to be. The last 100 feet or so was steep and exposed above the lake. Our need to be back in Seattle by seven kept us moving. The trail down to Twin Lakes went quickly enough. We even had time to oriented some hikers who had ascended Rocky Run thinking they were on the Lake Lillian trail. Oops. A left turn onto trail 1313.1 took us down a mile and 500’ to Lake Margaret. By now thunder had been booming for a while and the rain started in earnest. Our research had led us to believe that there were social trails to the lower Rock Rabbit and Stones Throw Lakes. Initially one might believe this possible and perhaps back in the era of logging here this may have been true. Today however we bounced between bracken, talus, steep wooded slopes, and eventually a few muddy, road-less meadows surrounding Rock Rabbit Lakes. We negotiated around this drainage for a while eventually trusting an overgrown logging road for a mile or so until it started to look more and more capable of heading where we wanted it to. Low and behold we had left our bikes in the brush just 50 yards down the 4 wheel drive track once we got back to the drivable section. 7 miles, mostly downhill, got us back to the Rachel Lakes trailhead and the comfort of our chariot. In retrospect I would recommend exiting via the Lake Lillian/Margaret Lake trailhead. This most likely would necessitate a two car shuttle. I did not use a GPS for this trip. I would estimate our distance traveled at ~14 miles plus the bike ride.