Hoh river backpack

We did a 3 day backpacking in Hoh river forest. Its a very dense real forest, full of animals and beauty. At the end was a magnificent glacier which we did not know about when starting the trail.

Day 1:
We covered the first 10 flat miles this day. This was all flat and not difficult to cover. We found a really nice camping spot right next to the river.

Day 2:
We took light day packs and wanted to cover some distance into the forest to some meadows. Since the distance was short and we had only day packs, we started quite late thinking we had plenty of time. How wrong were we! Heading into the deep jungle, we met some folks on the way. They said that meadows are ok, but just beyond there is a awesome glacier. We were not sure that we have enough time to cover it. We had to cross a recently washed off trail which was interesting, but I was not looking forward to crossing it back! Once we reached the meadows, we were quite disappointed because there was actually nothing there. There was though a steep rocky hike beyond which was the blue glacier. We debated a bit if we have time to get up there, but since the meadows were a disappointment and we were up for adventure, we decided to give it our best shot thinking that we will return at a specific time. So we mustered all our strength and ran up the rocky patch. We were in for a real surprise. After about 30 - 40min of hike, we were greeted by one of the most magnificent sites I have seen to this date,  a vast spread of Blue Glacier, looking like a river dropping off at far end. The site was just awesome, worth all the effort. (I will not say worth the risk, because if anything was to happen to us in the jungle, nothing would be worth that kind of risk!).

After spending some time there and relaxing, we somehow peeled ourselves of the site and starting running down. The light was failing and we had a really long way to go through dense jungle. It obviously grew pitch dark soon and we somehow fumbled our way towards the campsite. I was absolutely scared, and was really grateful when we finally saw the campsite. We had covered close to 17 miles, the longest distance I have covered to this day.

Day 3:
Like day one, this was just packing up and walking the 10 miles out of the forest. On the way out, we thought we can hear lot of voices, some animal and some that sounded like that of a child. It was scary and freaky!

Stuart lake **

One more unplanned, undecided hike. We started really late on Saturday morning and had a long drive. Started the 9 mile hike at 2:30. The hike was easier, only about 1300ft elevation gain. The first part of the hike we did quite relaxed, walking slowly. The whole hike is through the forest with tall trees, not really good for any kind of views. As with most alpine lake hikes, a creek flows all along the trail and there are numerous spots with access to water. You will see glimpses of Stuart range, but the view never really opens up.
Most of the trail is flat. There is one steep section after the creek bridge, goes for about a mile and probably gains 800ft in that. After that you will see a junction Colchuck lake and Stuart lake trail. The Stuart lake trail is another 2 miles from there. After the junction is flat for about a mile and then gains another 500ft rapidly. In the end you reach a smallish lake. We did not find any good access to the lake water. There is ok view of Stuart range from here, but not great.
Overall, a good hike to get out of the city and get a workout. But very slim on views or ruggedness. Consider last resort if you cannot find anything interesting.

Noble knob

This was the weekend for a easy trail. We decided on noble knob, its a 7 mile round trip with a total elevation gain of 500ft, easy breezy. The road leading to trailhead is really bad, steep uphill, gravel, rocky, basically not recommended for your cute little loved car. So we decided to rent something better and go for the hike.
As usual we started lazily around 10, partly because rental car need to be picked up. I forgot to take the forest pass again, cannot understand how!!! Once we reached the FR 7174, the adventure began. The road was indeed steep, uphill, narrow and very bad. There were some sharp switchbacks. Driving on it was slow and very careful, we managed to maintain a speed of 20 on that road. There were a lot of potholes that should be avoided. In all it needed careful driving, high clearance car is better, though we did see a Nissan Sentra making its way up.
We started our hike on "a" trailhead. It did say Noble Knob on it. The hike immediately started very steep, taking us straight uphill. We must have gained almost 500 ft in less than half a mile. From the top, the view in valley was great. We had major doubts that this is the real trail. It was suppose to be flat!. We looked for a lunch spot and ate a bit. Started again, hoping that we have already covered the 500ft we were suppose to gain.

Bandera Mountain

One of the very few 4000ft+ peaks so close to Seattle. No need to mention that its quite a popular trail. We started the hike on a somewhat cloudy Saturday morning. The drive is less than an hour, so we started lazily around 10:00 from Redmond. We were ready to start at the trail head by 11:10. The trail starts with a gentle uphill. Soon you reach a nice small waterfall, I think this is called Ira Spring. Another 20 min gentle walk up from Ira Spring, you will see a fork in the trail. The right side is closed and to the left you will see a steep slope up. That is the true beginning of this trail and it never eases from there. Its all the way uphill, at least 30deg slope, sometimes 45 and even a 60deg uphill. For long time you will walk in the tree line.

You will see I-90 snaking in the valley below and Snowqualmie river by its side. Beyond I-90 there are other couple of high peaks and faint trails heading up to the peak are also visible. Do not forget to take a break and spot Mt Rainier. Its one white mountain with foreground of green peaks. We mostly missed it on the way up because the day was cloudy and we did not know we should be looking for it.

This trail is shared with Bandera Mtn and Mason Lake. There is a fork about 2.5 miles up. At this point, the real trail goes to Mason lake which is about another half a mile. And the trail to Bandera mountain is pretty much a scramble up at a very steep grade. But every inch of that walk is worth the views you get from the top. There is a false peak where you will find good rocks to sit and gaze at Mt Rainier (is you are into those kind of things). Mason lake is also visible on the other side and Rainbow (I think) lake a little further from it.

Some more rock scrambles lead to the real peak which is not that impressive. Most common reaction on reaching the real peak is "That's it!!". But you may want to do it just to complete the trail. There is almost no place to sit at the peak and view is blocked by some trees. We took a group photo and top and just came back down to sit in the rocks.

Mason lake was looking so inviting on the hot day that some of us decided to go on a little adventure. They descended the rocks and went all the way down to the lake. The "trail" is difficult and treacherous, but still doable. If you are in shorts, you may want to think twice as you will have yo go through lots of bushes. And you end up at other side of the lake. There is no trail around the lake, so to get back on the trail, its another scramble through rocks and bushes.

Trail Data: 7.6 miles round trip ( + 1 mile if you want to take a detour to Mason lake, recommended on the way down). 3000ft elevation gain to Bandera Mountain.

Directions: From Seattle, take I90 east, exit 45. Left at forest road 9030. After about 0.5 mile, continue on forest road 9031, this is a 3 miles gravel road, ok for small cars though.

Ingalls Creek

.... oh I mean Ingalls Lake, no I think I mean Ingalls Creek। That is how our long weekend backpacking started। It was the first good hike of the season for me. We decided on going to Ingalls Creek, start on Saturday, wilderness camping overnight and then back on Sunday. This was a out and back trail. Somewhere on the way during planning, some people decided to go to Ingalls Lake which is a 9 mile rt, 3000ft trail and they forgot to tell others in the group about their decision. Shayon decided to go to some place in Mt Rainier region (Ingalls* is around wenatchee) and of course did not tell anyone else and we were all going together in one car.

Unusually I had not even looked at the description in detail. It was not Mt Deception and that's all that mattered. Friday we all went to REI and I got kathmandu curry, finally.
Saturday, I got up early to do a lot of cooking. Made upma for beakfast, lots of potato sabji for sandwiches. Then I took directions for this place called "Ingalls Creek" and then Rahul took directions for this place called "Ingalls Lake". We all got together at my place around 9, and we started almost by 10:00. It was a 2 hr drive to whatever place we were going to (still undecided). 1 hr into the drive, on I97 it finally occured that we don't know where we are going. Somehow a decision to go to Ingalls Creek was made for which no one takes responsibility.

We had sandwich and rice lunch at the trail head. The trail started fine. It was almost flat, going in the jungle, all along the creek. We stopped at a place where there was lake access, wet our feet in ice-cold water and had second round of lunch. Then started again. On the way we met some people और उनसे पूछा की आगे का हाल क्या है। उन्होंने हमें बताया कि जिस lake पर हम जाना चाहते हैं वह तो और १० मील दूर है। और पता नहीं खुली है भी या नहीं। यह पूरा रास्ता ऐसा ही है। जंगल में से, अधिकतर सपाट। इसका मतलब हम एक दिन में वहां तक पहुँच ही नहीं सकते।अब निकले ही हैं सारा सामान ले कर तो एक दिन क्या और दो दिन क्या। खाना कि तो कमी नहीं होती, और दफ्तर का क्या है, कम तो चलता ही रहता है। तो हमने सोचा क्यूं न और एक दिन रुक जायें और पूरा देख कर ही जायें।