The drive up to Snoqualmie Pass was uneventful. Light traffic on a Tuesday afternoon in spite of the good weather. A few clouds gave texture to the otherwise uniform blue sky. The way to this trailhead is secret so I'll just say I was parked and ready to go about 15 or 20 minutes after leaving the freeway. On the way up I had seen a semi pulling a backhoe on a trailer. Weird.

As I started up the end of the road I could see what the backhoe had been doing. It had gouged huge holes in the road and made large berms to prevent anyone from driving farther up. The dirt was still loose enough that even walking was a bit dicey. Clearly the backhoe operator had taken his work seriously because there wasn't just a single berm, but several large holes extending 100 yards or so up the road.

Undeterred I continued up. Last time I had been on this trail was in April and although the snow was rotten and soft we still needed snowshoes. Given my tight time constraints (I had to be home by 7pm without fail so Amy could head out for a night with the mommies) I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to find the supposed trail to the lake. I needn't have worried. The trail was clear as day. The only problem were the blueberry bushes it traveled through. TASTY.

Although the trail was extremely steep I made great time for the first 10 minutes or so. Then I hit a wall and had to take a breather. I munched a bar and set a more maintainable pace. The trail looked to have been idle for at least a week, but before that it had obviously seen a fair amount of traffic. Someone had even spray painted red arrows on trees and rocks to keep people on track. Better than blazing trees? Dunno.

When Nick and I had tromped through this area in the snow we had gone wrong right at the start. We were too high on the right and crossed an outlet stream from another couple of lakes at a dicey waterfall. I could see that spot from the trail and recalled a discussion with Nick about whether or not we ought to be where the trail actually was. As I continued up I repeatedly came across landmarks I could recognize if I visualized a couple of feet of snow. Our winter route criss crossed the real trail several times. In fact, where I thought we had gone wrong in the snow (right instead of left at the headwall below Lake Laura) turned out to be the correct way after all.

I made it to Lake Lillian in about 40 minutes. Not bad for the 1,500 feet of gain even if it was only 1.5 miles. (Maybe because it was only 1.5 miles it's more impressive. You tell me.) This was the third time I had been to the lake, but this time I had at least a little while to explore in decent conditions.

I had considered heading up onto Rampart Ridge by climbing the slope on the north side of the lake and although I could see the trail clearly it was equally clear that I didn't have the time. Instead I hugged the rock just west of where the trail (the unofficial as well as the official) reaches the lake and headed for the outlet. Tokul had some issues navigating some of the bigger scrambles, but using her head (literally pushing herself up with her neck when her back legs lost traction) she kept up with me.

Two big knobs of rock prevent Lillian from slipping over the edge completely and provide spectacular viewpoints of Lake Lillian, Rampart Ridge, Lake Laura, and the valley all the way down to Lake Kechelus. Hey! I can see my car from up here! Unfortunately, others had also thought it a great place to dump their trash. From a two foot deep hole dug for no purpose I could discern I picked up a monster water bottle and stuck it in my pack for later disposal. A fire ring looked over Lake Laura with a strange little seat of diamond plating bolted to a tree stump next to it. I certainly should have taken a picture of it, but for some reason didn't.

At the outlet I was surprised to see no water flowing down the cliff to Lake Laura. In retrospect, it shouldn't have been that surprising given the dry summer, but kind of disappointing nonetheless.

The wind had begun to blow pretty heavily and it swirled in the Lillian bowl. For about a minute a whirlwind crept across the water pulling water into the air. When I finally had my camera ready it went away and didn't return.

Glancing at my watch I realized I needed to get going lest I be late so Tokul and I headed back across the knobs to get to the trail. If it seemed steep going up it was even more so going down. In spite of this and the loose footing I made really good time and was soon at the junction to Lake Laura.

The short drop to Laura wasn't much, but was extremely wet and slippery. In fact, the entire bowl Laura was sitting in was full of little streams trickling toward the lake. Quite different from the relatively parched Lillian basin just a few hundred feet above. Laura is very small and with the high walls on three sides and the huge rock penninsula in the middle it seemed very closed in. The blueberries were ripe here, too, though, so it was worth the little bit of elevation lost to visit.

I found another fire pit full of trash that I collected. The only dicey bit was the shattered and melted glass attesting to the really good time someone had had there. I wrapped it in Tokul's poop bag (unused) and hoped nothing would be badly punctured on the way down.

Speaking of which, the trip down was very quick. Only 40 minutes up the steep slope had led me to expect a 20 minute trip down and that it was, excluding my side trip to Lake Laura. Almost at the car I realized Tokul had lost her collar with all her tags. A review of the photos I shot look like she lost it somewhere at Lake Lillian itself. (One picture appears to show the collar while climbing a rock on the shore while another clearly shows her without it near by.)

Back at the car I kicked off my boots and punched the gas to get home in time. I still had to pass the fatal rock slide of a few days before that restricted I-90 to just one lane of traffic westbound, but this proved to be no problem. I called to let Amy know I'd actually be home early for once and rambled on about how great a little hike this was. If it didn't take over half an hour to drive to the trailhead (yes, I'm spoiled) I'd make it my new conditioning trail, but for now Lake Lillian will remain a special little treat.