Island Lake

 

Well, Thursday I picked the only non-sunny day this week to go hiking, but the weather was comfortable  Except when I laid down to rest.  Then I got cold and that shouldn’t happen at the end of July.  My goal was Island Lake which goes by three other lakes and has side routes to half a dozen more.  Here is a picture of Talapus lake, the first in the chain.

Island Lake is at the top of that ridge you see in the back ground.  In fact, it is really a hanging valley with a whole lot of lakes, lake lets, bogs, and otherwise squishy
ground. Here is a picture of Talapus lake from Island Lake.

There are a bunch of steps up from one to the other.  Between the two,  in a little bowl is Ollolie Lake.  It has great camp sights and lots of reeds if you are into making baskets.

But once into the hanging valley are a series of bogs, which on a cool day  are devoid of mosquitoes.  The cool weather is not all bad

And Island Lake, which is named for all of the little islands in it. (Any where else they would be called rocks.)

With in a mile of Island Lake, is Rainbow Lake. You can see the clouds pouring over the ridge to protect my skin from the harsh sun slight. Had there been a little more sun, I might have seen a rainbow over the lake.

 

And on the way out were some four foot tall mutant lettuce like things that I am attributing to radiation leakage into the air from Hanford in the 1950’s.

 

Even with the weather, it was a great hike, though a little long.  I was down to my last Oreo when I got back to the car.

Photos from Island lake hike

Common Wealth Basin

 

I was originally going to hike up to Annette Lake, but when I got there at 10:00, the parking lot was already full.  so, I decided to do some cross country up into common Wealth Basin.  My plan was to photograph the light reflecting off of common wealth creek. I was able to get some nice green

 

and blue reflections

And I continued my journey of learning the name of a new flower every week.  Except for this one which doesn’t seem to be in my book.

 

 

But I did find Canadian dogwood

 

And I was able to identify the wild life that I saw.  This is a fish

It was a most pleasant hike, but I am still concerned that I continually run into flowers that are not in my the “150 most common flowers of the cascades” book.  I must be a most un-common hiker.

Photos of Common Wealth Basin

Snow Lake

 

I’ve been waiting for the snow to clear at the ever so appropriately named Snow Lake so I could hike there.  I arrived at the parking lot and was about the two hundredth car there and that was on a Thursday.

But because of the snow on the trail and steep drop offs, I decided not to hike down.  On my way out, I ran into mountain search and rescue who were coming up to help some people who disagreed with my assessment.  So I worked my way back cross country, still running into a lot of snow, but not the steep dangerous kind.  Here is a waterfall where I have pictures of friends and family cooling off on a warm summer day, but that is when there is no snow and a lot less water.

 

But since there was all of that snow, there were also some great waterfalls. I counted seven coming down the cliffs just above source lake. You can also cool off by standing at the base of a waterfall and looking up to photograph it, but be very selective in the water falls that you choose.

 

 

Looking out over the Alpental Valley, the water falls are at my back, you can see Adam’s condominium. It is the white dot in the center of the picture.

And I am constantly amazed that as soon as the snow gives an inch, the flowers start colonizing.

 

 

Pictures of Snow lake hike

Hiking with Rich and Mary

 

Rich, Mary and I, though  went hiking up Kachess Ridge.  It was a sunny day though Rich said it was just like a lovely winter day in Arizona.

 

The stonecrop was in bloom

and it was a great hike along Silver Creek.  There were waterfalls, lookouts with views where we ate out lunch and beautiful meadows.

It was a beautiful day for a pleasant stroll through the woods, with a stream to cool your feet off at the end.

Pictures of Kachess ridge Hike

Mason Lake

 

I’m a little behind on my postings.  Last week I headed up to Mason Lake and it was so clear that you could see the Olympics. This view is looking out along the south fork of the Snoqualmie River, I-90 to the rest of you,

Even Mt Rainier poked its head above the lower peaks.

The bear grass was out, but as you can see, it is a steep trail up to Bandera Peak.

 

But eventually I reached Mason Lake.  It was beautiful and for this time of the year, there were amazingly few bugs.

 

I spent about an hour setting here and relaxing and then headed to Island Lake, but I ran into snow before I got there and stopped and headed back home.  It was a a beautiful day and a cool hike in the shade.  Of course it was kind of hot in the open slopes with the bear grass, but there were a lot of places along the trail to relax.

 

Pictures of hike

Kachess Ridge

 

Went back to Kachess Ridge to see if the snow has melted out.  Jim joined me which makes the hike a lot more pleasant. The day was beautiful with blue skies and a pleasant temperature in the low 70’s.  The trail itself goes up very steeply, but it is mostly in the shade and usually has a cool breeze coming up from the creek.  There is a trail/scramble off of the main trail to the top of the ridge where an aircraft beacon used to be located.  Beacons were put on several of the peaks in the Cascades to guide mail planes at night during the 1930’s.  Once we broke out of the trees there was a great hike along the ridge with views down to Kachess lake and over to Rainier.  n

On the way up, we scrambled to a ridge with with a great garden of Spreading Stonecrop.  It’s one of the best flowers I’ve seen grow from a pile of rocks.

And we had a pleasant time setting on the mossy banks of silver creek.

Photos of kachess Ridge

Lake 22

 

It is not the prettiest name for a lake and on Thursday, it may have been the only place in the state that wasn’t sunny, but I went hiking there anyway.  The hike is easy and there is lots to see,  but I would have really liked to have had some sunshine.  I don’t think I have ever gone hiking on the mountain loop highway and had sunshine.  But it is one of the few lakes in the world that is accessible and in its natural state.  It was set aside as a Natural Research Area in 1947 to study the effects on water, land and wild life when it is left unmanaged and undeveloped.  The entire trail is in old growth timber.  It is well known for its Western Red Cedar

It has weeping walls where plants grow on a vertical garden

and of course there is a lake.

Creek 22 flows from the lake and has at least six waterfalls that are easily accessible

And all of this is there because of the abundant rain. 

Photos of Lake 22