Rattlesnake Ledge — Wednesday, Sep. 27, 2023

When's the best time to avoid the crowds on the Rattlesnake Ledge trail? On a mid-week, rainy, windswept fall day like today.   That was what Jeno and I were thinking so we decided to check out the ledges this morning meeting at the overflow lot at 6:00 AM.   The large lot was still gated and closed at that time.  There were two trucks parked ahead of us in the overflow lot.  As Jeno was locking his car my headlamp picked up a sign in the window of one of the trucks so I went over and checked it out.  It read "My truck is broken.  I will be back to fix it later" or something to that effect.   All righty then...

My drive over this morning was done in very light rain or mist and it was like that as we left the parking lot but before we even made it to the road that takes you back to the trailhead the rain started so it was time to put on the rain gear.  A rain top for me and a poncho for my sidekick.  A quick check of the bathrooms both the permanent one and the sanikans showed them all clean and stocked with TP.

We turned up the trail and hiked along in the rain which after this summer actually felt pretty good to the two of us.  We ran into the owner of the non-broken down truck heading down the trail as he had started at 5:00 AM.   We arrived at the lower ledge right at 7:00 AM and it was light enough to turn off our headlamps.  We continued to the upper ledge arriving there at 7:10.  The wind which was calm down low had picked up near the ledges and was really blowing at the upper ledge.  I tried to take a photo but I was being blown around so much by the wind I bagged it.  

We took our break off the ledge and back near the trail.  After a snack break we headed back down wondering if we would see anyone and to our surprise we did, a solo hiker, a group of three and then one solo hiker in the last 1/2 mile so five total.   The rain which had been light to steady all morning really picked up on our way down for about 15 minutes.  You can tell it's raining hard when someone (initials SR) who has the gift of gab as they say doesn't talk much (to Jeno's ever-lasting relief).   We got back to the cars at 8:20.   The large lot was open at that time.  From our observations Rattlesnake Lake has little to no water in it.

Like I said I didn't get a good picture this morning so I attached one from a previous trip to the ledges last winter.  Stay safe everyone.  See you on the trail.   SR