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Trip Report

Tuck and Robin Lakes, Hyas Lake — Monday, Jul. 2, 2018

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway
Robin Lake

Road: FR4330 to the trail head has relatively few large potholes, but even the tires on our AWD vehicle slid a few times on the loose gravel, and there is a dropoff at the side of the road. A high clearance vehicle is quite useful for the creek that crosses the road a couple miles from the trailhead. The water was about 6-12 inches deep. 

Trail: 
Day 1: There was a light rain most of the day. Along Hyas lake and before hitting the switchbacks up to Tuck there are many small stream crossings, probably at least 10, but they all either have enough rocks to step across on or are shallow enough to ford without getting your [waterproof] boots wet inside. There are also a good number of fallen trees over the trail, but can be climbed over without too much trouble. Where the trail leaves the deception pass trail, it's clear the snow has not been melted out too long. Now there are only sporadic patches left and the trail is easy to follow all the way up to Tuck. We camped in some established campsites on the southwest side of the lake. Tuck lake is a beautiful place to camp, with great views of Mt Daniel across the valley.  The area surrounding the lake has a lot of boulders, vegetation, and rocky outcroppings, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to find campsites if more than 5 groups were camping at the lake. We only saw one other group. 

Day 2: In the morning we hiked up to Robin lake. Surprisingly there were only several snowfields remaining on the way up. We couldn't find the trail around the lower part of Tuck so we picked our own way. The outlet stream from Tuck into Tuck's pot appeared to only be crossable at a log jam, so we went around the bottom of Tuck's pot and crossed at a narrow part of its outlet. From there you quickly gain several hundred feet of elevation up a boulder scramble through a gully. Once you exit this gully, you can go right or left, with cairns on either route all the way to Robin. We went right, which ended up being longer, but had no snow. Most of the way up is over granite. We came back down the other way, which was more direct but had a few sidehilling sections on snowfields with some melting out holes. Ice axes were useful on this section. Robin lake is still almost entirely snow covered. Granite mountain above the lake is partially snow covered. 

Flowers: The drive along FR4330 has large meadows with a lot of blooming corn lilies. The lower sections of the trail near Hyas lake have bleeding hearts and lupine. Between Tuck and Robin some glacier lilies were just starting to bloom. 

Bugs: Perhaps due to the rain on the first day, the bugs were almost nonexistent. On the way back out there were some mosquitos by Hyas Lake, but didn't require any bug spray. 

Animals: Didn't see much wildlife, but there were some chipmunks around. One somehow got into the car while we were at the trailhead gathering up our stuff. Saw signs of goats at Tuck. I'd recommend bear cans unless you're good at hanging food on high branches. There aren't many long overhanging branches near Tuck. 

Mt Daniel from Tuck Lake
Tuck Lake
Hyas Lake and Cathedral Rock from trail between Tuck and Robin
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