Rob and Beth arrived at the Moosefish Estates at the... um... early hour of 11am. We piled into the trusty 'onda and headed up the Pass. The road to the trailhead is doing fine, but I was surprised to see almost a dozen cars crammed into the tiny space. So much for this being the secret, back-door route.

We started off with a good pace over the berm and to the creek. In the middle of June the stream crossing before the uphill was raging and claimed Dan on the way back. Now, however, it's barely a trickle.

According to tradition, someone has to get hurt on the trail so I decided to take one for the team by smashing my head into a branch while scrambling up some rocks. The scrape doesn't look so bad, but dang it's sore.

The trail, as always, is steep. It seemed perhaps a bit steeper than normal because the ad hoc re-route around the big blow down from the winter goes straight up. The tread has been turned to dust, though this is better than the mud that will be there as soon as the rains begin.

We saw a bunch of people coming down. Just about all of them said we'd have the lakes all to ourselves. I'm not sure if they meant Lillian or the Ramparts, but certainly not Laura. At the junction down to Laura we could hear lots of voices and dogs barking, so we skipped and headed up.

It's amazing how much difference a few feet of snow can make. Two months ago the snow was deep enough to make an otherwise unpassable section the obvious route. As it was, we stuck to the summer trail and made the lake (Lillian) in 45 minutes, just off normal pace. (I blame all the waiting we did as others came down.)

We paused at Lillian for a few minutes to have a snack and prepare for the next section of the hike. The rock that we had to cross seemed far less scary this time, though we came off it on the high side and found a sweet little camp spot with a fire pit and everything. I've been looking for a place to take Clara for a quick overnighter and this might be it.

If the trail to Lillian is steep I'm not sure how to describe the gully leading out of the Lillian basin. Maybe "insanely steep" is a good measure, but that doesn't really get to the point. Regardless, it was definitely a good workout. We popped out at the top and met a small group of other hikers looking at a tiny black spot moving across the meadow we would be crossing. They thought it was a bear and I was apt to agree with them. It certainly seemed to be moving and what else would be moving, that large, and black?

We decided we were going to proceed anyway, if for no other reason than to get a better look. One of the other hikers went along, too. We let him go first figuring we could definitely outrun him, if not the bear.

Needless to say we needed to work on fighting the power of suggestion rather than preparing for a life-or-death encounter with Mr. Bear. The closer we got the more obviously a shadow cast by a log the "bear" became. Oh well. (I also saw a heard of mountain goats posing as a couple of downed and stripped trees.)

The trip across the meadows is one of the coolest parts of the hike. The gain is very gradual and there are amazing views to the north, south, and east. (It's not a ridge-top traverse so you can't see to the west.)

We came down to the Ramparts and into the bugs. The mosquitos were bad, but only in waves. The flies never really left. Tokul got off leash for a few minutes to cool off in the highest of the lakes before we continued on. Although the upper lake is really pretty, the lakes beyond it are really the better ones. The whole area is a massive rock and the lakes fill the gaps. The water trickles from one to the next before exiting the area to the north toward Alta Mountain.

Rob couldn't resist the blue/green waters and was quickly in. Tokul looked, but couldn't bring herself to jump in and that was probably for the best because I'm not sure how she'd get out.

Beth and Rob lounged on the rocks while I poked around. I had thought there were only two or three lakes, but there were many more. Some were very small (lakelets?) while a couple were long and winding. It wouldn't be a problem to find a nice isolated stretch to camp at.

Although we had thought of Alta Mountain as our ultimate destination (or at least I had) we couldn't bring ourselves to leave the lakes so Alta will have to wait for another day. (Last weekend's trek to Iron Peak was originally going to be a trip up Alta via Rachel Lake, but the weather changed those plans.)

After we'd eaten lunch and filtered some water we started back. I popped a tube of ZipFizz, which is a sort of juice mix with a preponderance of goodness including over 41,000% of your recommended daily allowance of B12. Not to worry, though. Nobody will ever OD on B12 because it tasted so bad it was a chore to drink even a little. (Somehow the entire liter was gone by the time I got home, though... hmmm.)

At the top of the gully heading down to Lillian there is a side trail that heads up the ridge of the bowl. I think Rob was joking when he suggested he hold Tokul while I scramble up, but I took him up on it anyway. I got just high enough to take a picture looking down on the lake before descending. I think this is the route TNAB takes when it tackles this area, but I'm going to miss this year's trip due to a work thing so I'll just have to expore it on my own.)

Going down the trail from Lillian was dicey as usual, especially for Beth who had on shoes with no real ankle support. However, we were whole when we reached the car. Tokul climbed in the back and immediately fell asleep on Beth's lap, much to her delight.

We grabbed quick showers at home and then drove into town to meet the girls at North Bend Bar and Grill for dinner.

Total distance was about 5.5 miles and 2,400 feet of gain.