This rock is the highest point I reached.

Another one

View on the ridge

Foggy lake without fog

Vally view on the trail

Gothic Basin

Aug. 27, 2005
9.4 miles round trip, 3,000ft altitude gain to reach Gothic Basin
Reached the beautiful Foggy Lake and the ridge between Del Campo Peak and Gothic Peak (Another 600ft and 2 miles?) .

Charlie, Zhong and I began the hike at 11:30am. The climb in the forest was streneous. Because it is a dry summer, we did not saw that much water/water-falls along the way, which we saw and liked very much in last year's hike here. On the other hand, whether was good and view was great. Moreover, there were a LOT really tasty blue berries. We had lunch near a wather fall. We kept climb and probably reached the Basin around 2:30. Zhong and I continued to the Foggy lake, which is gorgerious. Once we were in Foggy lake, the ridge in the west side seemed very close and tempting. We decided to climb. Wow, the views were just incredible. After that, we took a shortcut and came down the steep slope directly. We left the basin at 5:00 and was back at trailhead at 7:00pm.

Gothic Basin is just beatiful. One should camp there for one night if he can carry 40-50 pounds up.

View of Mtn. Rainier.

Trail

Lookout House

Beatiful blue lake

This slope will be very beatiful when leave turn red.

Blue berry trees

Granite Mountain

Aug. 21, 2005
8.0 miles round trip, 3,800ft altitude gain.
9:30-10:20-12:55----1:15-3:15-4.05

I took Granite Mountain alone today. The road was very mild at the beginning for about 20 minutes so I had a good warmup. Real climb immediatly began once I followed the "Granite Mountain" sign. I climbed at a slow pace in the forest. Interestingly, I was still able to reach the lookout house in about two and half hour and I did not feel that tired. Being "slow" is essential for me to take a tough long hike.

At the altitude of 5,600 ft, views at the lookout house are defintely worth the effort to climb. One can see layer after layer of mountains far away. Mountian Rainier is very clear in the south. Glacier peak could be seen between two other nearby peaks.

A lake along the trail with blue color is really beatiful. Blue berry trees are also along the trail. I bet the trail would be really beatiful when leave turn red in the coming fall.

Easy access, good altitude gain and great view. Granite Mount should be revisited.

View

Reflection

Blue-Green

Green

Lunch Rock

Lake Serene

Lake Serene

Aug. 7, 2005
7.2 miles round Trip and 2,200 ft altitude gain
11:00-1:00--2:45--4:15

Yang Mei and Li Xiao, both of them Ph.D. candidates in the EE Dept. of UW and both of them my Tsinghua alumni, and I hiked together today. I enjoyed the conversations about Tsinghua Uninversity. Having been stayed in Tsinghua for almost 6 years, I really miss the student life there.

I hiked Lake Serene with Wenjuan in April last year. At that time, a large part of the lake was still covered by snow. On the other hand, waterfalls were very very impressive then.

Today, under the bright sun, the lake is amazingly beautiful. Dogs happily swim to the center of the lake to fetch balls. Some ladies are basking on the Lunch Rock. A few daring souls even jump/dive to the lake from a big rock on the south side. Every hiker has a good time after the somewhat tiring switchbacks on the trail.

It's a very nice hike. Next time, remeber to bring swimming suit.