Dust In The Wind - Goat Rocks Wilderness, Surprise Lake, Warm Lake, Gilbert Peak - 8.9.20 - 8.12.20, Part 1 of 3
Neighbor Greg and I have hiked literally hundreds of miles together, both on day hikes and on backpack trips but rather surprisingly, this was the first time we have ever gone backpacking just the two of us. Our Plan A was to visit a place called the Stone Kingdom but the weather models looked drier and more stable the further south you looked so we came up with Plan B just a few days before we left.
Leaving Lake Stevens at 6AM Sunday we drove about four hours down past Mt. Rainier and over White Pass to Rimrock Lake where we took the South Tieton Road (pronounced Tie-It-On, not to be confused with Tie-One-On which is an entirely different subject matter) to the end of the road. Oddly, the parking lot is still a mile and a half from the official trailhead but there is a permanent easement through private land to get to the true starting point of the trail.
If you recall, last fall I did a solo backpack to the Snowgrass Flats area of the Goat Rocks Wilderness which is on the west side of namesake ridges and peaks. The Pacific Crest Trail runs north right through that area and at this time of year a whole slew of thru-hikers with names like Gorpman, Trail Cred, Stinky and Deet are trying to complete their Mexico to Canada journeys. It is a gorgeous place but since I had already been there, Greg and I opted to do a trip on the complete other end of the Goat Rocks and come in from the east starting at Conrad Meadows.
The first mile and a half stays flat as it runs straight through the most vast array of big meadows in the Washington Cascades. We walked through huge fields of flowers before eventually entering the woods. At four and a half miles with very little elevation gain we came to a junction. This junction is the start of what is known as a lollipop loop where you have a stem trail with a loop on the end.
Greg in Conrad Meadows
State of the art bridge over Conrad Creek where it joins the South Fork of the Tieton River
From the junction the trail starts climbing steadily and at the six and a half mile mark we came to our campsite for the evening at Surprise Lake. The sites aren’t that exciting and the views are fairly limited as we were still down in the forest but the water was warm enough for a swim to clear off the trail dust. Dust was par for the course on this trip. The trail is also popular with horses so in addition to dodging the occasional road apples whoever was following had to keep a very healthy distance behind the leader to try and stay out of the dust cloud. Greg commented that I looked like Pigpen with a cloud around me as I hiked.
Surprise Lake
Nothing beats a refreshing swim in a mountain lake!
Because this part of the Goat Rocks is on the other side from where the PCT runs, it sees far less people than the Snowgrass Flats side. I found it interesting that none of the trails had any signage. It actually gave the entire area a wilder feel. All we had to go on were a few previous trip reports and a map which more than one person had claimed to be riddled with incorrect information regarding the routes. Our plan was to find the route up to a higher plateau leading to the alpine wonderland at the headwaters of the South Fork of the Tieton River. Somewhere up there was a lake called Warm Lake and that was where we planned to base ourselves for several more days.
Reports stated that a rough route climbed straight up the side of the mountain just before crossing a stream along the main trail. It was steep but fairly short and would lead us very close to Warm Lake when it reached the top of the ridge. Well this has been a much later melt out than a lot of years so we crossed lots of streams. We did see a boot path as described but thought it looked too small to be the real cutoff (turned out to be the one we were looking for). A bit further we came to a very obvious trail junction. Thinking this was the gully trail we began to head up steeply. The trail varied from very steep sections through rutted creek gullies to open forest. Soon we came to a steep traverse up a hillside. This looked very promising and sure enough, as we finished the climb and popped through a gap in the ridge we could tell we had just entered the alpine zone.
Trail to Warm Lake. We were aiming for the low point on the ridge
Once we popped through the ridge line things immediately got incredibly scenic. To the north the red rock of Devil’s Horn looked impressive.
Devil’s Horn
What information we did have told us to simply “follow the creek up" and you’ll run into Warm Lake. We actually chose to stay high above the creek so we were looking across the creek valley as the peaks of the Goat Rocks came into view. The rest of the way from here to the Warm Lake was just stunning scenery. Cross country travel was easy and wide open. Pretty meadows jam packed with alpine flowers dotted our route and across the lush, green creek valley the tallest peak of the Goat Rocks, 8,201’ Gilbert Peak towered over the valley. We stared at that scene for a long time knowing that part of the plan was to climb to the summit of Gilbert Peak while we were here.
8,201’ Gilbert Peak
Following the creek up to the head of this basin to find Warm Lake
We hadn’t seen a person all day but shortly before we got to the lake we ran across a party of four leaving. We passed a pretty little tarn and a great campsite before topping out above a hill and there we found Warm Lake nestled into a little shelf on the hillside overlooking the basin. Not a soul was to be seen so we dropped our packs and roamed around the lake to check things out. We found several spots for camping and chose one in some twisted gnarly trees just above the lake.
Warm Lake
Once our camp was set up we shouldered day packs and just wandered all over the upper portions of the spectacular basin we would call home. First we climbed a little higher above the lake to where the first drops of water that form the South Fork Tieton came out of the snowmelt and formed a lovely stream that spilled over a small waterfall and wound its way down the basin.
Headwaters of the South Fork of the Tieton River
The alpine flora was going absolutely bonkers and we hit it at just the right time for maximum flower viewing.
Flowers with Devil’s Horn behind
On the route to Warm Lake
After looking at the broad picture we dropped down along the creek and just followed it for a ways down the valley. The peaks didn’t even look like what you would typically see in the Cascades. The entire area had a remote, rugged and wild feel.
Stream meandering through the basin
Remnant snow over the South Fork creek
Our camp just above the lake
Before dinner a family of four arrived and set up camp a bit further around the lake. Other than that, no other people came up to camp the whole time we were there. In the afternoon the wind picked up and while it wasn’t cold, it made cooking and food handling a bit of a challenge. During the windy part of the afternoon it felt like this place must be windy all the time so I had very little hope of sunrise reflection shots. However, very little is still better than not a chance in hell so I set an alarm for 5:30AM knowing that the sunrise was scheduled for 6AM. So far all had gone well. We were a bit nervous as we anticipated our agenda for the following morning. On a side note, Greg had a brilliant idea to not bring a backpacking chair (which has a backrest) to save weight. Like a lemming to the sea, I followed suit and I can now say I will never again go backpacking without my chair. Every day my back was stiff and achy by the end of the afternoon and sitting on a log is a mighty poor substitute for a real backpacking chair. We stayed up until the late late hour of 8:30PM before retiring for the evening, each in our own thoughts about the adventure ahead.
Last rays of the day on Warm Lake
On to Part 2!