Mt. Daniel seen across the valley from above Tuck's Pot
Ben and I headed into the wilds of Washington for our second annual Alpine Lakes Scrambleganza™. Tuck & Robin Lakes are north of Cle Elum and are a very popular spot for Seattle-ites, despite the scrambly trail approach. Once you pass Roslyn, the drive is somewhat bumpy dirt, but Ben's sedan made it just fine to the trailhead. The initial bit of trail is pretty flat and takes you past lovely Hyas Lake.
Thence up the steep and rough (yet official) trail to Tuck Lake.
Looking across at Mt. Daniel, where we would be two mornings later.
The trail from Tuck to the Robin Lakes is non-official and marked with cairns.
There are multiple paths and cairn routes going up, so we took the opportunity to monkey around a little.
At one point we ended up on a little ridge in error (the "trail" was below to our left), so we had to do a little downclimbing.
Top o' the hill cairns.
Lower part of the Robin Lakes.
Bigger Robin Lake.
Trico Mountain (L) and Granite Mountain Potholes
Sunset.
Sunrise.
Closeup on Daniel. It's a mountain of multiple peaks - the two on the left are the East and Middle summits, which we would visit the next day.
Pre-breakfast scramble to Trico Peak.
Very nice pothole tarn below Trico - we should have camped here!
Perspective.
Trico summit looking north. (Snowy thing in the distance is Glacier.)
After breakfasting on Trico and taking in the view, we headed down, only to run into a very determined fan of our TRs.
A little too determined to get an autograph, he followed us back to camp...
Look behiiiiind you....
Robin again on the way out.
Back down in the valley, looking south from the PCT.
Epic washout canyon. Photo does not do justice to how enormous this thing was.
Underneath the impressive summit of Cathedral Peak.
Slightly rough spur trail over to Peggy's Pond.
Deep Lake, below.
Peggy's Pond and Cathedral Peak.
Looking up at Daniel from camp. We scrambled the little foreground bump after dinner.
We woke at 4:30 and wasted time making a hot breakfast, then were off under headlamp at 5:30 up the climber trail. It started getting light after six.
Circle Lake
We skipped the snow slopes (they were icy and we didn't have safety gear) and ascended the climber trail/scramble up the ridge on the left.
Looking south towards Mt. Rahn-yay.
Typical scramble terrain. Not too hard or exposed, it turned out. Loads of fun.
Up at the saddle. L-R: West summit (highest), Middle summit, East summit.
View south from the saddle.
Summit view south.
Traversing the "cheese grater" talus towards the Middle summit.
Geode!
Looking at the West summit from the Middle summit.
Continuing from Middle.
Ben on top of West. Slight scramble up, easy, fun.
I followed up a direct scramble (there's a ramp to the right of me), with important summit snacking in mouth.
Ben with Mt. Hinman (snowy thing on the left) behind.
Looking down the Lynch Glacier at Pea Soup Lake.
Crossing talus on the way back.
Long ride down the cheese grater if you slip (but you'd probably stop after a few feet).
Little use trail across the saddle towards the false summit and the ridge descent back down to camp.
Coming back down to Peggy's Pond and Cathedral Peak.
View back at Daniel from camp.
We packed up, hiked out, and drove home.
Around a 5 hr drive from Portland. 31 miles and 8000 ft EG, probably. You cannot pay money for morning light like that.
Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
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- Sean Thomas
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Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Wow, nice dude! You guys are awesome! Good to see the paparazzi goats
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Ain't that the truth. Looks like just about the same time as this view looking the other way from diptop gap about a week earlier:Bosterson wrote:You cannot pay money for morning light like that.
Have always loved the area up there.
ron
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Great report, and maybe just the kick in my butt I needed to get out this weekend. Some questions - any spot on Daniel where navigation wasn't straightforward? Looks like you mostly follow the SE ridge up, sometimes staying to the west/left, and occasionally scrambling over some big blocks. Also, any good spots to camp above treeline on Daniel? I know Peggy's Pond is the common place, but I like more alpine camps due to critters and views, especially when I'm solo. Also, did you guys hang food or what at camp? Finally, sounds like the creek on the approach to the trailhead sounds pretty low if you guys were in a sedan, would you say less than 6 inches of water?
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Oh my god, yes! If I don't see Pea Soup Lake sometime soon I'm going to explode, for real guys. Same with Tank Lakes. I've been too tired to get out this month and now I'm panicking!R11 wrote:Ain't that the truth. Looks like just about the same time as this view looking the other way from diptop gap about a week earlier:Bosterson wrote:You cannot pay money for morning light like that.
Have always loved the area up there.
ron
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Yeah, probably 6 in of water, tops. We drove through the creek no problem.anne37 wrote:Great report, and maybe just the kick in my butt I needed to get out this weekend. Some questions - any spot on Daniel where navigation wasn't straightforward? Looks like you mostly follow the SE ridge up, sometimes staying to the west/left, and occasionally scrambling over some big blocks. Also, any good spots to camp above treeline on Daniel? I know Peggy's Pond is the common place, but I like more alpine camps due to critters and views, especially when I'm solo. Also, did you guys hang food or what at camp? Finally, sounds like the creek on the approach to the trailhead sounds pretty low if you guys were in a sedan, would you say less than 6 inches of water?
We hung our food off a small leaning tree around head high - no chance of stopping bears, but enough to keep the chipmunks away. Not really any good trees there to hang it higher, but we didn't have any problems.
The route up Daniel is very straightforward - it's a user path the whole way, with cairns on some of the lower parts. Follow the trail past Peggy's Pond and eventually there is a spur trail to your left marked with a cairn. Follow that up the slope to the ridge and then from the ridge to the east summit. The ridge route never requires more than easy class 3 scrambling, exposure isn't really too bad, though Ben and I are apparently not a good judge of that for other people, from what I'm told.
There are some bivy spots up the climber path on the way to the ridge (and on the ridgetop too, I think, not quite sure where I saw them all) but you'd have to haul all your water up and it was windy and cold on the ridge. Can't beat the sunrise view though.
If you just wanted to get a little solitude but avoid the wind, go upcanyon from where we camped (follow the creek) and there are some spots up in there among the rocks, I think. You'd have to backtrack a little to get back to the climber path.
#pnw #bestlife #bitingflies #favoriteyellowcap #neverdispleased
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Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
OH. WOW. Absolutely spectacular! That scenery is utterly amazing!
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Stunning pictures, especially of granite-rimmed lakes. Cannot get better than this
How long is the drive to get there? How crowded was that area - approx. how many cars did you see at trailhead?
Funny that you mention the price(less) light, now and then I think what would be the "cost" of priceless scenery on alpine hikes. No million-dollar mansion has a view even close to many of backcountry campsites out there, and yet all you need is to bring your "home" (aka tent) and choose which mountain or lake you wanna see out of your living room
How long is the drive to get there? How crowded was that area - approx. how many cars did you see at trailhead?
Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Very nice! We were thinking about heading to that area for a long-ish trip this week, but apparently a system's moving in Wednesday. Looks like you guys had the perfect weather for it! I'll have to get up there some day...
- Don Nelsen
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- Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm
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Re: Tuck & Robin Lakes and Mt. Daniel - Sept. 5-7, 2014
Excellent job, TR and pics! Love that area and really wish it wasn't so far away.
dn
dn
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly
"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller
"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller