Rachel Lake Backpacking trip 2008

The fourth of July signals the real start of summer in the Pacific Northwest. Despite the solstice being a week or so earlier, there is some magical clock that strikes on the fourth weekend which signals clear skies, warmer temperatures and great conditions for getting outdoors.

For the past few years, friends of mine Sandro and James have been kicking off the backpacking season with a trip up to the Rachel and Rampart Lakes in the Alpine Lakes region of the Cascade Mountains. Both areas are very beautiful, while taking some work to get up to. This was my second year coming with them and based on our experiences last year, it’s been something I’ve been greatly looking forward to the entire year.

This trip started out with a bang, literally. The evening before there was an unexpected set of thunderstorms, not the most inviting idea considering the hike alternates between high forest and open plains areas. We set out regardless, considering that the mountain ridges might buffer the worst of the weather and the trail report was pretty favorable. It claimed “some snow” on the trail, but mostly clear with trillium flowers sprouting up along the path. In hindsight, there ought to have been ominous foreshadowing music.

To say “some snow” was a wild underestimate. In fact, there were areas of up to nine feet of snow judging by the depth of the tree wells going up the path. Whole areas of the trail were obscured by snowfall and it took the master pathfinder — James Wittingham Spencer — to keep us on track. It didn’t click at the time, but the waterfalls were far more active than usual, owing to the massive amount of snowfall and the very delayed start of any warm weather. This would have an impact on the path up, something I’ve never had the circumstance to do before: fording water. For those who do not know (and as I said, I didn’t until it was brought up) fording a stream involves taking off your boots, striping off your socks, removing the lower half of your hiking pants and walking through water barefoot. However, in this case, it was barefoot in snow melt. Very recent snow melt. Perhaps around 33F. And lots of it.

By the time we made it up to Rachel Lake, it became obvious that the trail report was woefully inaccurate, collectively we had all packed inappropriately and on the upside, this was going to be a trip with a great deal of solitude. Rachel Lake had about 60% ice cover and most of the campsites were snowed under. It had take us far longer to get to Rachel Lake than we had expected, just short of 5 hours. We were tired, cold and faced with the prospect of hiking further in diminishing sunlight. We set up camp in a day use spot of Rachel Lake.

The next morning we started off on a day hike to see the Rampart Lakes and whether or not we should relocate camp. The morning was warm and had some sun so the heading up hill was going to be an easy enough affair. Our original plan to ascend Mt. Alta was largely out of reach, the point having been shrouded in deep cloud cover, so Rampart Lakes it was. If Rachel Lake was merely frozen, the Ramparts were arctic tundra. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow and ice — including things I have not seen before, like rivers and waterfalls.