Rampart Lakes Day Hike with Friends

July 26, 2014

I forgot how awesome the potholes are on the drive to the trail head. Slurmz made it up there with no problem. If you drive fast enough you can coast over them ;) Plenty of parking in the lower lot and you can pay for a permit at the TH.

The eight of us met up at 10 am on a beautiful Saturday morning. I've never hiked with so many people before! It was fun and there was so much conversation to keep my mind off the elevation gain during the last leg up to Rachel Lake. All the elevation gain is in the last half of the hike. It's great.

The Group at the beginning of the hike

Waterfall

This was Andy and my third time on this hike. We carried 26 and 23 pounds, respectively, because this is what we are expecting to carry at Rainier.

Lunch break at Rachel Lake

The gals

There are plenty of mosquitoes. Be prepared and bring your bug spray and clothing. Bleh. With some of us feeling good and not giving a choice to the others we climbed another 0.5 miles up to Rampart Lakes where we took naps, got eaten by more mosquitoes, ate some candy and took more pictures.

Rampart Lakes

Andy's nap spot

There were only a few patches of snow going up to Rampart Lakes. We had a few slips, but nothing to worry about. It's snow free around the lakes once you get there. So worth it for just a little extra effort.

On the way down letting others pass us

A good experience was had by all - way to push yourselves through the hurt. Let's do another one!

Quick Update and Surprise Lake Day Hike

July 13, 2014

Wedding festivities are over and now Andy and I can be married which means free weekends for hiking!

Back in April we received confirmation that our Wonderland Trail itinerary was approved. We'll be hiking it in six days with no resupply starting from Longmire and heading clockwise. I'm nervous, but we will be doing some conditioning hikes before the big trip starting with Surprise Lake.

Andy made me a cool, new, safety-orange backpack and he made himself a nice new one, too. Yeah, 100% custom-made (Andy's MYOG post here). My husband is awesome. We loaded our packs with just under 20 lbs of gear and they held up wonderfully during the hike. My new pack shaves off a pound from my Osprey pack which means I'll be using it for Rainier.

The last time we were here Surprise Lake was frozen over and there was so much snow! On Sunday, the weather was warm/perfect and the lake was all thawed out. There were bugs, of course, and only patches of snow on the trail, but no big deal. It's a pretty gentle climb up to the lake until the last half mile. The trail is mostly in the forest and shaded by trees so it is a good hike for such warm weather. Feeling good about our energy levels we headed to Glacier Lake but due to a lost water bottle incident and not remembering how much farther the lake was (only 0.5 miles, doh!), we decided to turn around and head home. We will make it up there one of these days.

At Surprise Lake. Pardon the frown - I was chewing my Cliff Bar and didn't want to stop eating for pictures.

Shortly after he lost his water bottle. Always has a positive attitude!

Looking back up the trail. I still can't get over how awesome the staircases are here.