[jhiker]

Fought the early traffic through Bellevue and then drove out to the Denny Creek trailhead arriving there shortly after 8:00. Arrived at lower Melakwa Lake about 2 hours later and after a break started up the ridge trail to Point 5701. This trail starts right near where you cross the lake outflow. As you cross the creek, look for the trial leading up the ridge to your left. There is a tree with a wooden picture of an outhouse on it right near where the trail starts going up. After a hundred feet or so, the trail to the outhouse forks off to the left and going straight from here leads onward. The trial to 5107 was steeper and rougher than I thought it would be. Most of it was in timber and there were some places where hands were needed to get up. As the trail gets higher, there are more open spaces and some views to be had. Overall it is an easy trail to follow. Point 5701 is a worthy destination in its own right. There are fine views to be had from here of Chair Mountain, Kaleetan, and points to the south and west. From 5701, the trail looses maybe 300 feet in elevation as it avoids crags on the crest. The way down is pretty steep but it then levels off for a bit before heading back up. Once it starts up, it doesn't stop until reaching the summit. The trail comes up a rocky slope to a brief level area and then starts up the shoulder to the right of Kaleetan. Right below the summit gully is a nasty area of loose rocks and scree. The gully itself isn't so bad, there are good hand and foot holds and the exposure isn't all that bad. I think the main worry would be kicking loose rocks onto people following below you, or getting a loose rock kicked onto you. The views from the summit are worth the effort in getting there. On this day, most of the real far-away stuff, Baker, Glacier, Stuart, and even Rainier were obscurred by smoke. There appears to be another fire burning north of Rainier and smoke from that and other fires gave a smoke-filtered look to everything. Noticed on the way up a slot that lead down into the upper Melakwa basin. Thought that it would be a faster way down and so took that instead of the ridge. The upper part of the slot was pretty easy but after that it got pretty messy as it was very steep and had only crap loose scree to walk on. I found that I had to be real careful here and so it took longer to get down then I thought it would just from looking at it. The slot lead into the upper basin closer to the pass then the upper lake but once down into the basin, it was an easy walk to the lakes. I think that next time, it would be easier to go up using the slot route and back down via the ridge. Saw only two other people the whole day, two guys coming down from the summit as I was about to go up. It was strange to see nobody and either Melakwa lake or anywhere on the trail. Even the Slabs were completely deserted.

Lower Melakwa Lake. Melakwa Lake sits in a basin between Kaleetan and Chair Peak.

A marmot guards the approach to Kaleetan.

Kaleean Peak taken from Pt 5701.

Taken at the base of the summit gully. The loose stuff in the foreground was the trickiest part of the climb. It is about 160' from the base of the cliff to the top.

Wright Mountain & Gem Lake

Si, Teneriffe, and Seattle

Upper and Lower Melakwa Lakes

Snoqualmie Mt, Three Queens, Alta, Hibox and Chair Peak

Summit stamp and Chair Peak Lake

Upper Melakwa Lake and Kaleetan

[Kat]

Thanks for the TR, nice pics. I need to do this one some day!

[Justus S.]

I like the report, thanks for posting.

[Magellan]

The 'summit stamp' is interesting. I'm not sure I've seen something like that before. Anyone else? It doesn't look USGS in the picture.