[jaysway]

Like many, I'm on a larch kick right now as I have spent the last three weekends now chasing larches on some of the most popular larch hikes in the state. There are a bunch of lesser known hikes (known of course to anyone reading NWH) that I'm excited to try in the future, but for now I figured why not try to complete the most popular ones? I had a short window of time between finishing work early on Friday to having to pick up my partner at the airport on Saturday afternoon before heading to a friend's 30th birthday party in Portland. Lake Ingalls is a pretty short hike, so it felt like a good one to sandwich into a short time block. I stayed in Roslyn on Thursday night, worked through the early afternoon and then headed off to the trailhead. The great thing about starting a hike late is getting a spot right next to the trailhead. I passed perhaps 12-16 groups coming down on my way up, and everyone was super friendly and happy to be outside. I wouldn't be surprised if most people, like me, figure that this will be their last larch hikes or one of their last hikes period of the season. Once I got up to Ingalls Pass, the basin was totally devoid of people except for one group camping on the lower trail. I ended up taking the higher trail and camping near the creek. There was a little bit of snow in the basin and traction was helpful but perhaps not entirely necessary.

Ingalls Pass

No light during sunset

It was too cloudy to see any light during sunset, but as I ate dinner in the growing darkness the clouds started to part a little bit, so I had fun taking some night shots. It was a good way to pass the 13 hours of darkness I had before me .

I snoozed my first couple of alarms in the morning, but when I heard someone hiking by my tent at 6:45 (I later talked to him and he had gotten all the way into the basin after starting at 5) I knew it was time to get out of the tent and get ready for sunrise. Unlike sunset, the sun was able to poke its way through the clouds a little bit !

Given how late sunrise is now, I had a short time window before needing to head down the trail, so I quickly packed a daypack and headed off to check out Lake Ingalls. My original plan was to hike to it the night before for sunset, but since it was completely cloudy by then I wanted to hold off until today in case conditions improved, which they did.

At the lake I ran into two hikers who I had walked by my tent when I was taking sunrise shots. They had planned on both climbing the South Ridge if I am remembering correctly, but one had decided to bail so they other one was doing the climb solo. So far my waterproof trail runners were holding up well against the snow and slush (shockingly, my socks were totally dry when I took them off the night before), but I eventually stepped in a big puddle while walking down to the lakeshore and a little bit of water got into one of them. Ahh, not a huge deal. After only a few minutes at the lake, I made my way back to camp. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but I'm sure I'll be back here some day.

Finally, I packed everything up and booked it back to the car. As I was going down, I easily passed 50 groups going up. Hundreds of people. Only a couple of backpackers, but still, I was happy that I got to enjoy a lot of time in the basin in relative solitude.

Stuart is almost gothic looking, truly one of the most impressive peaks in Washington

Esmeralda Basin looks so similar to the eastern Olympics to me!