Today’s hike was to have been to McClellan Butte, and I was really looking forward to it. However, snow on critical parts of the trails caused our leaders to switch to Pratt Lake – a trail due north of McClellan Butte across I-90. The hike began under dark skies that threatened rain. Although we encountered rain on the drive up from Seattle, we never saw more than a light misty rain all day long on the trail, and the sun finally broke through near the end.
Pratt Lake is in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area in the Mt Baker – Snoqualmie National Forest, about 5 miles northwest of Snoqualmie Pass. In addition to Pratt Lake there nearly 700 other lakes nearby with 615 miles of trails linking them all! So today’s hike was a wonderful introduction to this area that I can certainly see myself visiting again and again!
The trail was long – over 6 miles in to the lake from the trailhead, and the elevation gain was pretty moderate yet steady. When all was said and done, we gained about 3000 feet on the day. What made this trail very interesting however, at least to me, was it was our first opportunity to hike across a boulder field. Our other hikes have been through dense old and second growth forest, the occasional clearcut, and a rocky ridge here or there. But this one brought us to a huge boulder field through which we lost, and then had to regain on our way out, about 800 feet. As you can see in the pictures below, the scenery was significantly different from our other hikes. It was cool walking through the boulders and wondering how they got there. Did they all come cascading down from the top at the same time? Wow, what a thunder roll that would have been! With the change in geology came a change in vegetation too! I don’t know the names of all the different plants we saw along the way, but I’d like to get a field guide and learn them.
Pratt Lake itself was a dark emerald green with the trail wrapping around it about a hundred feet or so above the rocky shoreline. There were a number of dead and dying trees between the trail and the lake that prompted several of us to wonder why they were dying. (Lots of questions to ponder on today’s hike!) In fact, I took note of a LOT of dead trees along the trail today – most of which had become homes for birds and other small animals. We stopped when we got to the lake and had a much needed lunch break, and took some time for picture taking. The clouds were rolling quickly through the valley the lake is in, and literally one minute you could see the lake from the trail, and the next minute it was hidden by the clouds. It was kind of spooky!
We crossed a number of streams and bogs, and saw several pretty waterfalls – none of them big or spectacular, just steady and peaceful – the kind that invite you to just stretch out under the nearby trees and take a long restful nap. Unfortunately we had to keep moving so there was no time to do that, but it was fun to daydream about. I must give a shout out to the Washington Trails Association (WTA) for their fine work in maintaining the Pratt Lake trail. Several of the aforementioned bogs were quite large, and the WTA has built very sturdy log walkways across them so that hikers don’t get their boots wet AND so the bogs are not damaged.
Here are a few pictures from today’s hike:
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- Sign on tree
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- Misty morning trail
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- Lined up for Craig’s arrival?
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- Crossing the boulder field
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- More rocks!
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- Pratt Lake
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- Trail above the lake
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- Clouds rolling in over the lake
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- Heading back up from the lake
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- Bigfoot lives!
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- Looking back from whence we came
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- Sunshine!
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- Dead tree – home for lots of critters?
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- Nice stream
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- Peak across the valley
Altogether we covered 12.2 miles of distance and had total elevation gain of 3000 feet. My knees were killing me when we got back to the trailhead. Downhill is much worse on the knees than uphill, so I think I need to spend more time running stairs or working out on the Stairmaster at the gym. I found some stairs near our house that go from 19th Ave down a long hill to the bus stop on Delridge Ave. I’ll spend some time on them this week and see if it improves my knees next week.
The fundraising has slowed a bit but I’ve not put much attention on it the past couple of weeks either. August 29th is just three weeks away, so it’s time to get it cranked up for the final dash to the finish line! Thanks again so much to all of you who have donated and supported me through this. I could not have done it without you, and I sincerely appreciate it. Don’t forget to leave a comment to let me know you’ve been here!
Happy trails!!
Ron
