Ron Brothers and I met Robert Smith and Carmelita at the QFC in Issaquah at 9am, and car pooled to the Granite Mountain trailhead at Exit 47 on I-90. We saddled up and headed up the trail, leaving about 10:30am. The Granite Mountain trail is about 4 miles up, with a 3800' elevation gain, a bit harder than Mt Si.
At the fork between Pratt Lake and Granite Mountain, we noted the comments of previous hikers that the Granite Mountain fork looked "evil" compared to the Pratt Lake fork. Indeed it did, rocky and steep.
We crossed the snow tongue, and Robert commented that it was simple, now that he had ice ax arrest practice under his belt. We went out of the trees finally and into a wonderland of Alpine meadows filled with stunning views in the distance and countless bear grass and colorful flowers lining the trail.
We got to a plateau below the summit of Granite Mountain, where the trail disappeared under mounds of snow. While it was possible to go up the rocks, they were all about the size of small Volkswagons, and it didn't look appealing. Since only Robert and I had brought our ice axes, we contemplated going up ourselves and leaving Ron and Carmelita on the plateau. It was a beautiful spot, with the snowy peaks of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness showing up in the background.
But we decided not to abandon them to the flies for the hour plus that it would take us to go up the snow slope and then back down again, so we called it a day, and turned around and went back down. It still took a long time to get back down. We got to the car at about 6pm, which meant we were on the trail about 8-1/2 hours. We finalized the trip with a delicious beer and dinner at the Issaquah Bar and Grill.
Carmelita was a fun companion on the trip. She was going on the Seattle to Vancouver bike ride the following weekend, and she was clearly more fit than any of the rest of us. We all had lots of good laughs and conversation.
You can click on any picture for a larger version of the photo.
Roger, Ron, Robert and Carmelita, saddled up and ready for the trail.
Young man and his dog, saddled up and heading for a few days at Pratt Lake and beyond.
Was puzzled why a guy by himself had a rope ??
Robert was giving me pointers on how to compose a photo of the trails.
Here's another photo using Robert's guidance.
Here are Robert, Carmelita and Ron emerging from the trees into the Bear Grass.
Another photo along the trail, showing I-90 and the trailhead far far below :).
Here's a photo of some of the beautiful flowers along the trail.
What a beautiful trail!
Here's a view of the summit of Granite Mountain from the plateau where we stopped.
Notice the lookout at the exact summit.
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