Rachel Lake, Alta Mountain — Saturday, Jun. 18, 2005

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

The “R” half of S&R, recovering from a head cold and a late Saturday night, couldn’t rally Sunday morning, so the “S” half did this hike solo. The drive is easy for low-slung cars, though the road is unpaved after the Kachess Campground turnoff, and there are enough deep potholes that you have to be alert. The gravel road is one lane with frequent turnouts but poor sightlines in places, and there was lots of downhill traffic (mostly fast-moving pick-ups) as I headed up. As noted in the June 8, 2005, report by Janice Van Cleve, after you turn left at the entrance to the campground, you have to take a right fork (on a curve going uphill) in about half a mile. This keeps you on Road 4930, which you take to the well-marked Rachel Lake Trailhead parking lot. The trail starts across the main road from the entrance to the parking lot. Other reports describe the trail well so I won’t repeat that information. But I noticed that the June 8 report got left and right switched at the ridgeline above Rachel Lake. (Lila Lakes and Alta Mtn. are to the right; Rampart Lakes to the left.) I turned right at the ridge top, and stayed right at the next junction, mostly because I thought the trial to Lila would be descending when it split from the Alta ridge trail. At this second junction, the left (less-used) fork appears to go level across the ridge, and the straight-ahead right fork climbs through a saddle, which turned out to lead to the Lila Lakes basin. In fact, the left trail quickly takes a sharp right turn and heads steeply up the nose of the ridge to Alta (this was the way I came down). But going up straight towards Lila turned out to be a better option, I think. Once up into the basin and nearly to the first, shallow lake, I found a well-defined way trail angling back a bit to my left and making a nice comfortable ascent through a grassy meadow to a low spot in the ridge, where I picked up the main ridge trail. It is just a walk to the summit; hands not really needed anywhere, though I did use mine a couple of times. The ridge seemed longer than it probably is, because the several false summits were a bit demoralizing. The only snow on the route was a trivial 20 foot long soft patch a few inches deep on a level spot between the last false summit and the top. There was no exposure there. I saw only 3 other hikers on the ridge to Alta, and they were all descending as I went up, so I had the large summit to myself. There were crowds at Rachel Lake, but most people had headed down by time I passed through on my descent. (By the way, to find the trail up the ridge from Rachel Lake, do not go all the way to the water’s edge. Instead, stay right, and follow trails so that you parallel the lakeshore through the camping areas. Look for the trail to head up through a broken rocky area when you have gone only a little way counterclockwise around the lake.) There is quite a bit of snow in the upper part of the Lila Lakes basin, including at the pass (but no nasty cornice), and parts of some of the upper lakes were still frozen. Both Lila Lakes and Rampart Lakes seem like nice camping spots. Rampart would be more protected from wind, though also probably more shaded, since mountains rise to the west and south of those lakes. Lila Lakes are more open, windswept, and more alpine in appearance. Still no register on the summit. Many Townsend’s solitaires (that’s a kind of bird) swooping around singing incessantly, and black swifts coming in close over the summit ridge. Good mix of flowers in the open parts of the trail in the valley, alongside the creek. Weather was mostly sunny and comfortable, with a nice breeze most of the day. A thunderstorm formed south of I-90 by mid afternoon. When I could not only hear the thunder but also see the lightning, I realized that my time on the summit was over after only 30 minutes. A shame because the views were superb, despite the puffy broken cloud layer that floated over all the peaks. A steady light rain caught me for much of the descent from Rachel Lake, but under the trees it wasn’t even noticeable, and when I did get wet it was nice and cooling. Not even the sort of rain for which you’d bother putting on a jacket. A few slow-moving flies, but no pesky bugs this day, though outbound hikers who’d camped Saturday night said there’d been many mosquitoes overnight. Left the car just before 10:30. Two hours to Rachel Lake, 10 minutes to rest on the rocks alongside the switchbacks above the lake, and a bit under 2 hours from there to the summit. A little over 3 hours to return to the car. All times included numerous stops to listen to the abundant birdsong (winter wrens, three kinds of thrushes, several warblers and vireos) and admire the spectacular waterfalls all along the trail between Rachel and the trailhead. A very nice hike well worth doing.