Wright Mountain, Gem Lake & Snow Lake — Sunday, Aug. 18, 2019

After seeing the marine layer on the drive up to the trail head from the Eastside I was thinking I made the wrong choice and would be in the clouds all day. Well, I made the wright choice, had the wright stuff, and made it all the way to the summit of Wright Mountain. What a beautiful day it was in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.Now I can see why this is such a popular hike. Did not see many hikers heading up as I started at 7:10 am. Quite a few overnighters at both Snow and Gem lakes. Trail going up to Gem lake is steep but the views are great along the way. The view at Gem Lake looking toward Kaleetan Peak is second to none. After passing the turnoff to get to Wright Mountain and getting some directions from some overnighters, I took one of the trails on the east side of the lake that led to some campsites  and then continued it up to the summit. I lost the trail a few times but just went straight up the talus field and rejoined it. Got to the summit at 9:50 am. Views were fantastic from here. You could see a few of the places that I have hiked, and alot more of places that need to be hiked in the future.

On the way back from Gem lake I started to count hikers that were headed up just for fun. The count was 434 hikers headed up!! No kidding. Everyone was enjoying themselves and did not see anything inappropriate.

Got back at car at 12:30. Awesome hike on a gorgeous day! GPS had it at 11.6 miles RT with 3455 elevation gain with all the ups and downs.