What a lovely hike this is, the PCT truly is a treasure!
I left Seattle much later than expected, after 8 AM and arrived at the trailhead around 9:40. The road was pretty good the first mile or two, and then start the moderate sized potholes. There's a sharp hairpin turn in the road, and at that point there are a few small rocky sections to cross. I was able to go over them slowly in a Forester, but it would be unadvisable in a lower-clearance vehicle. There was sufficient room to park along the road near the trailhead, thankfully people were doing a very good job of pulling in pretty close to one-another, so space wasn't wasted.
The trail itself had me slightly confused, and I accidentally started off going north when I should have gone south. I heard voices from another trail around the time I was passing Ollalie Meadows and realized, there shouldn't be a trail crossing here. If you're going to Mirror Lake, start by heading uphill.
The trail was in good condition, there were a few muddy patches where you could tell it had rained this week. Otherwise, the tread is really good and pretty well draining. There were some wildflowers, but not an overabundance. The bear grass seems like it has just recently peaked. There were a few mosquitoes, I got 3 bites, but it wasn't too bad. It's nice that the trail goes through a lot of cover between open sections, so you don't get too fried in the sun on a clear day.
Upon arrival at the lake, I was reminded that there's a much shorter way up that it seemed quite a few families had taken advantage of. Alpine lakes tend to have a lot of echo and it somewhat spoils the reward of hiking out to a serene alpine lake, only to listen to a group of screaming kids and barking dogs. The same goes for partying late into the night when overnight camping. A lot of people go out to nature to enjoy some solitude and tranquility; if you're taking a group out camping in the woods, please try to be considerate of others in terms of the amount of space that you occupy and the noise that you make.
Start to finish, including a wrong turn and stopping for lunch, the hike took about 4 hours at a moderate pace. My GPS shows ~1600 feet of elevation gain, so that 400 feet is somewhat deceptive since there are quite a few rolling hills. Overall, a great hike and probably a very nice overnight spot to camp during the week.
Comments