Enchantments through hike

Date: 7/18/2020
Who: Roy, Julia, Matt
Activity: Day hike
Google photos link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/W1gtUBHuLGvniPJV8

Julia and I drove to Icicle creek on Friday afternoon hoping to get a campsite at Johnny creek campground but were disappointed to find that the all 60 sites were full. Not panicking though we found a good spot for a tent in the Forestland bouldering area parking lot. We parked in our tent and then went off to check out some of the boulders in the evening. We got on some V0s for about an hour, then went back to the campsite to find Roy had arrived, along with several other groups of varying size. We hit the sack around 10 after some dinner and game planning for the next day.

The next morning we got up with the sun around 4:30am to break camp and drop off Roy's car at the Snow Lakes parking lot. At 5am the Snow Lakes parking lot was already full so we left the car near the lot on the road anxiously drove to the Stuart/Colchuck Lakes trailhead. We arrived there at 5:30am and got a spot about ~400m from the parking lot, which was also full. The whole process of dropping off cars and getting to the trailhead in a timely manner was pretty anxiety inducing for me.

After eating breakfast at the car we got on the trail around 6am and started the journey up to Colchuck lake. The adrenaline of the race for parking and desire to put distance between us and other groups starting around the same time fueled our initial cruise up to Colchuck. We reached the lake (~4 miles) around 8am and stopped for a second breakfast snack in the boulder field leading up to Asgard. The lake is very beautiful and does get a lot of traffic as a result.

On the way up Asgard we split up a little bit - I was a bit rude and not patient enough to wait for Julia or Roy - I just really wanted to race up as fast as possible. It was really nice to do the ascent in shade, and with fresh legs. We regrouped at the top around 9:30, stopped for another snack and then continued on our way.

I had glimpsed a little bit of the lakes on our hike up to Dragontail in 2018 so my expectations were pretty well primed, but wow is it seriously awe inducing. Around every corner there's another jaw dropping moment. My phone was dead but Julia and Roy took their fair share of photos. We took it slow and stopped often to gape.

Some of Julia and Roy's photos, in no particular order:

Cairn #23, humans for scale

Julia documents obscenely large cairn #37

The human impact on the area is hard to ignore. The crowd from Colchuck had definitely dissipated at the top but there were still quite a few groups and we interacted with others on the trail probably about once every 15-20 minutes. We often got anxious about stopping for too long because we would notice a long train of hikers approaching that we did not want to have to pass again further along the trail.

That being said, for the amount of traffic which it sees on a yearly basis, I would say it's been well pretty conserved. Kudos to the forest service and rangers who regulate overnight traffic and help educate daytime visitors. The trail is pretty well kept at a reasonable width without too many social offshoots, largely because it's rocky and easy to explore without leaving footprints. The meadows we did see also still intact without too much trace of trampling or tents. The forest service has installed latrines to concentrate the poopoo impact as well. I'm not sure how frequently rangers are in the area, but we saw a pair soon after we summited Asgard who gave us a quick talk on the practices & procedures we needed to follow. So all in all I'd say the area is in good shape although there's little to no solitude to be found.

By 12:45 or so we had started our ascent down to Snow Lakes. This section of trail had several traffic jams and I took to asking folks if we could pass instead of waiting for them to yield, which may have been rude on my part, but also, it should be common courtesy to yield when you notice that someone is right behind you. Just saying. We ran into Shabina and her family who were on their way up and chatted with them for awhile, and also witnessed Shabina's dad nearly fall off the trail to his death.

At Snow Lakes we paused around 2:30 for a quick dip in the first lake, some more snacks and then prepared ourselves for the trudge back to the car. Another 7 miles awaited us and it was not easy. The final bit was long, hot, and for the last two miles we could see the parking lot as we exited the valley and switched back down a ridge. Some discrepancy exists between the mileage reported for total length, but the day was somewhere between 18 and 23 miles, which on either end is just a really long day. We got to the car around 5:30 clocking in around 11 hours 30 minutes for the whole through hike.

After nursing our sore feet and joints and collecting Julia's car from the Stuart/Colchuck parking lot we drove into Leavenworth for a perfectly mediocre and absolutely delicious meal at Heidleburger, then parted ways - Roy drove back to Seattle and Julia and I joined up with Joe, Jeff, and Grace who we were climbing with the next day.

Rating: 1/5, no larches