Rachel Lake — Friday, Sep. 2, 2022

No regrets going on this trail. I enjoyed it for most of the way until it became longer and harder than expected…. , it had lots of water for my dog along the way, and I picked the wild blueberries/huckleberries. The berries were peaked and plentiful at the lake. Saw a trout swimming up to shore while a few of us swam. Once I got to Rachel lake it was a huge feeling of accomplishment.

Trail was hard. Was scrambling on rock, roots, and several large ‘step’ ups. Wasn’t sure if I was taking a real trail or climbing up a dried stream bed, couldn’t tell…. But I admired the backpackers because I would have struggled more with 20 pounds on my back. I wasn’t expecting this level of hike, so I was glad there were many water stops to refill up and offer my older dog some relief.
There was one very large tree obstructing the trail that my mid sized 60 pound dog struggled with on the way back to jump/climb over. He was too big to crawl under. I could straddle the tree which was as wide as riding a horse, but height wise was tough for the dog. I had to take the dog off leash going up because I had to focus on small scrambles and navigating. The bugs were around but mostly entertaining my dog or bothering him, depending how you look at it.. I was bi by a few small mosquitoes but nothing bad.




To WTA: I would rate this trail ‘hard’ similar to All Trails. I felt a little mislead by ‘intermediate’. Only as I stopped with backpackers along the way did they tell me it was rated different through their app.