Twin Lakes & Lake Lillian WA

 **unfortunately, all but one photo from these hikes, both the '08 and '17 ones, were lost; old captions are denoted as such [caption]**

 

We (mostly me) don’t like to do repeat hikes, but certain things like weather, time, and our ever-dwindling choices mean repeats are sometimes a necessary evil. This trek was only a partial repeat, though. The first visit was nine years ago, predating my blogging, and making it all pretty much new again.

The first time we were here was in October of ’08. At that time there were signs warning of frequent car break-ins, and although we didn’t have much of anything a thief would want, we took what little we did have, wrapped it in a towel, and stashed it in the woods behind the parking area. We also left the car unlocked in hopes of avoiding any window-smashing. Either no thieves prowled the lot that day, or our tricky tricks foiled their miscreancy as all was well when we returned from our jaunt. The hike then was to Margaret Lake, a six-miler, and judging from our old photos, we didn’t descend the last mile to the lake. I have only three photos from that hike.

 

As you can see, we had our pups then, and as you can also see I took two pics of TBG taking pics of Margaret Lake, but I have no idea what happened to them. We regret bypassing the spur to Margaret this time around because it is unlikely we will re-repeat this hike. But let’s back up just a touch.

We had a few moments of panic and angry frustration when we got in the car and were verbalizing our checklist, but not finding the Northwest Forest Pass. You remember the NWFP, don’t you? It’s the one we’ve already purchased twice this year. We concluded that it had been left in the RV, but the RV is currently in the shop for maintenance. I was trying not to start punching everything within reach, and TBG was saying we’d just have to buy a day pass along the way. I desperately pawed through the console one last time and came up with the pass. Crisis averted, happiness restored. Let’s hike.

[TBG looks for signs of the sign.]

The prediction at the end of my last post did indeed come true, with warmer temps and abundant sunshine negating the need for us to drive very far. It was still a chilly start, beanies and gloves being a good idea.

[Our summer stomping grounds in the distance.]

Not far up the trail, there are nice views of the valley and Rainier. The steady climb and a warmish wind allowed us to ditch the hats and gloves pretty quickly.

[Enjoying the soft forest trail.]

Some sections of this trail are very, very nice. Others are very, very not nice, as you will see in a moment.

[Fuzzy photo of a fuzzy cutie.]

There are a few talus slope crossings, and where there are rocks, there are pikas, and you will hear them long before (or if) you spot them. In doing a Google search for the word to describe the sound pikas make, it occurred to me that I could have been shooting my own short videos of them. Why do these things only occur to me once I’m back home? I will try to remember this on future outings.

[Fading fall foliage.]

A lot of this trail is on the shady side of the slopes, and you know what that means…Snow!

It wasn’t too much or deep enough to post hole, but it was a little slippery and a little chilly when the breeze blew across it.

The WTA website says this about the trail between Margaret Lake and Twin Lakes 

After another mile of joyful rambling and a bit of descent, you will come to Twin Lakes.

 The mile part may be correct, but “joyful” is subjective — who are they to tell us how to feel about it, huh? — and “a bit of a descent” is pure bull-pucky. It may not be a lot of elevation loss, although our calculations differed once again from the website’s, but the steepness of the trail is practically vertical in places. That’s the not nice part I foreshadowed.

After the “bit of descent” we were once again in some sunshine, with Twin Lakes coming into view.

[“Pardon me, you’re blocking the sun.”]

On the edges of the snow-melt puddles, we saw some froggies, and this one kept scooting around our shadows to stay in the sunbeams. Did you know that frogs will become mostly frozen in the winter and thaw in the spring? I didn’t, either, but I just looked it up. This is one of the reasons it takes me so darn long to complete a blog post.

One of the twins.

[TBG explores the prominence.]

The twins are separated by a narrow strip of land with a large clear area like the one pictured above. I don’t do the overnight tent camping thing, but if I did, this would be a place I would. These lakes are sandy, shallow, and clear and no doubt wonderful places for a dip in warmer months.

[Short-people challenges.]

Of the trail between Twin Lakes and Lake Lillian, the website says The trail abruptly rises and then descends and then will rise significantly again before reaching Lake Lillian. This is accurate. A lot of this section is ugly and requires a keen eye to keep to the trail.

Then you get where you’re going.

 

Seeking out a sun perch.

 

The lake access from this trail was in the shade, thus cooler, and I thought I might find a sunny spot to sit and have our snacks, but the rocks were too wet.

A couple and their three dogs were coming down the rocks on the other side of this photo, and they asked us to take a photo of them, as they had just gotten engaged about two minutes before that. We were happy to oblige, but why we didn’t ask them to return the favor remains a mystery. At least we remembered to take our own picture, unlike last time.

[Old married people.]

We discussed whether we thought Lillian or Twin Lakes were prettier.

[Who’s the fairest?]

Lake Lillian is just over the boundary into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, and she definitely looks the part of a classic alpine lake, with the steep walls and rocky shores. On this day, however, my vote for the fairest goes to Twin Lakes. I asked TBG, and he just sighed and said, “Boy, that’s tough” which is abstaining, so I win!

[T-shirt weather most of the way back.]

We felt the difficulty and the distance of the climb on the way out and marveled at how quickly all our summer conditioning was waning and vowed to keep getting out at least once a week rain (snow) or shine.

Even if it’s a repeat.

Cowiche Canyon WA

**photos from 2017 were lost; those shown are from 2013**

 

October here is often more tricky than treaty. The sun and the rain begin their battle for control, and we outdoorsy types have to make the decision on just how wet we want to get or how far we’re willing to drive in order to stay dry. Today, we were willing to drive all the way to Palm Springs!

 

See? (image from NBCRightNow)

 

Having been to the actual Palm Springs, I have to say that Yakima is no Palm Springs. Unlike the real Palm Springs, it will eventually snow there, and it is almost completely devoid of palm trees. What Yakima does have in common with the real Palm Springs is a crap ton more sunshine than on the west side of the mountains. The other thing it has in common with the real deal is that it’s quite a drive — not days long, but more in total than the time we’d spend with our boots on the ground, which isn’t something we normally like to do. But the lure of more warmth and light was too strong to resist.

A rainbow delineates the sun and rain.

Four years ago this month, TBG dropped me off in downtown Yakima for a school conference, and then he and the pup took a hike on this trail. Since then, he has wanted to re-visit it with me, even though we knew by the time we could, the pup would no longer be with us.

 

Zuzu, the best hiker, on the bridge in 2013.

 

[TBG capitulates.]

After some disagreement about the end of the trail at which to start — TBG had begun at the other end then — we began at the other other end now.

 

Then and now.

The main trail is 2.9 miles in one direction, and as you can see, is flat.

[I’m the pack mule, carrying our limited supplies for the day.]

There are several bridge crossings over Cowiche Creek, the name of which we aren’t sure how to pronounce, having never heard it said aloud. Is it Cow-itch? Cow-itchy? Cow-eesh? Who can know?

 

We know how to pronounce “canyon.”

 

 

This sign indicates that if you see falling rocks, you should try to catch them.

It was a little breezier than we would have preferred, but how picky did we want to be?

 

[Whaaat? Are we in Palm Springs?]

There are some spur trails that climb up the sides of the canyon, and we took the one up to the vineyard on the return walk.

[Adding in more of a workout.]

 

[Overlooking the winery.]

It is possible to access the winery from here, and there are weather-worn signs pointing the way to the tasting room. We satisfied ourselves with a tasting of some of the grapes still clinging to the vines.

 

Someone neglected to catch these fallen rocks.

[I left a rock to be “caught.”]

As the day’s pack mule, I was prepared with our little gorilla tripod to take a photo of the two of us, but although we talked about the best place to do so several times, we completely forgot to actually do it. I hate when we do that (or don’t do that as the case may be.)

 

Vitamin D! Get your vitamin D here!

On the way back through downtown Palm Springs, we stopped at Miner’s Burgers for a treat, Then it was time to head back to the dark side.

[Another rainbow guides us home.]

Next weekend’s forecast is promising some Palm Spring-like weather on our side of the mountains. It might be too much to hope for this time of year, but I think I’ll hope anyway, optimistic fool that I am. You’ll know in a week if it came true! The sun part, that is. It’s already pretty certain I’m an optimistic fool.

Great Basin N.P. NV

September has always been my favorite month, not only because it is my birth month, but also because it heralded the beginning of a new school year, it (usually) has the best weather nationwide, and, these days, it is often the month in which we take our Big Vacation. This year’s Big Vacation was so big in so many ways, that I’ll have to break it up into sections with headings so as not to overwhelm you with its bigness and allow you to have coffee and stretch breaks. The post title already gives away the ultimate destination, but first we have to get there.