Dewey Lake, Naches Peak Loop — Monday, Aug. 15, 2022

    Today was the perfect weather day to hike Naches Peak Loop and Dewey Lakes.  We pulled into the Tipsoo lake lot just before 9:45 and it was 2/3 full.  The temperature was 62 degrees with clear blue skies. The NPS toilet facilities were open and stocked with supplies and smelly.  We hit the trail just before 10:00 and headed up to the PCT on the north side of Lake Tipsoo.  All the meadows and stream beds were teaming with beautiful wildflowers. The entire trail was dry and dusty.   We saw lupine, paintbrush,  fleabane daises, asters, arnica, cusick speedwell, lousewort, heather, partridge foot, spyrea,  monkey flower, larkspur, saxifrage, and more.  Several PCT thru hikers were on PCT from the Chinook Pass Summit down to Dewey Lake.  All seemed very friendly and eager to stop and chat for a few moments.  We were surprised that the trail traffic was relatively light considering the beautiful sunny day and wildflower peak bloom.

    This hike is a yearly pilgrimage for our hiking group and we had a strong 18 hikers celebrating 2 birthdays today.  Another trail hiker, Matt was also celebrating his birthday so we gave him a birthday necklace and belted out Happy Birthday to You.  He was amazed and said that our senior hiking group just made his day out in the wilderness.

   We arrived at the south end of Dewey Lake just afternoon and found a great beach with both sun and shade access.  Most in our group immediately took off our boots and socks and went wading.  Delightful!  The bugs mentioned in previous trip reports were out but not that bothersome. Most in our group had long sleeves and pants and Off spray at the ready, along with bug head nets.  After our birthday festivities we packed up and were back on the trail at 1:06.  To make a complete circuit of Dewey Lake we kept going counterclockwise along the east side of the lake.  Route finding was a challenge at times with downed trees and brush to work around.  It started to heat up and was in the low 70’s on the slog back up to Naches Peak Loop Trail.  We only passed 5 other hiking groups as we continued the loop back to Lake Tipsoo and our cars.  The lot had thinned out when we drove out just after 4:00PM.  Another fantastic day to be out in nature with friends.  Driving back to Enumclaw on Hwy 410 we encountered more newly laid chip seal, following a pilot car and a slow slog through the construction zone with dust and rocks flying.  Two vehicles in our group experienced windshields dings from the rocks.