We took a back-door route to Lake Lillian up a steep path to the trail. At one point the path crosses a waterfall with way more exposure than I like with two young girls in the party. But we carefully crossed and continued up to the regular trail. At Lake Lillian we surveyed the scene: Clouds dissipating as they poured over the Cascade Crest, flower-strewn hills, cliffs, and a fine lake with little access to the prudent hiker. But prudence gave way to curiousity and we continued. The path around the lake has some class 2/3 scramble moves. So we set up a hand line and ferried the kids and their packs across. After that it's a disappointment to see a heavily travelled route up to Rampart Ridge. Not too many years ago, this was untrammeled ground. Now a path is beaten through the meadows. We found a campsite at a pond, then continued towards Rampart Lakes. By then the weather was changing and upon our return to camp it was quite foggy. It rained lightly during the night, so the next morning we broke camp and descended very carefully down the slippery path to Lake Lillian. The scramble route on the rock was wet, but workable with the handline. We hiked out the regular Lake Lillian trail due to the wet weather and exposed waterfall. While the rest of the gang rested, I ran the logging roads to retrieve the car. Thus we managed a loop trip out of the adventure!

While I have hiked a lot of trails in the Alpine Lakes, I had not yet visited Mount Margaret and Lake Lillian. The weather was cloudy but dry when our Mountaineer group set out from the small parking lot. The route follows the old logging road uphill for 100 yards and then goes off on an old logging spur. After perhaps a 1/2 mile or more, it finally becomes real trail, wandering through a clear cut. The clear cut is filled with thriving young silver fir and douglas fir, as well as tons of huckleberry bushes, beargrass and other flowers. The trail finally reaches original forest near the top of the ridge and switchbacks through the silent forest. We crossed our first snowpatches here, a harbinger for things to come. At the junction with the Lake Margaret trail, the main trail flattens out a bit. Steep snow was blocking the route down to Lake Margaret. The Lake Lillian trail then traverses the west slopes of Mount Margaret and then dips abruptly down into the basin that holds the Twin Lakes. We encountered a lot of snow here, very steep in places, but easy kicking. The Twin Lakes basin still has a lot of snow, with some campsites just beginning to melt out. The meadows are extremely wet, and filled with emerging marsh marigolds. We found a campsite large enough to accommodate our group, but a couple of tents had to be placed on snow. After having some lunch and setting up camp, we hiked further on the rough trail to Lake Lillian. We had a few route-finding difficulties. In one place, the poor drainage on the trail has created a deep trench and people have created a scrambling route around it through the forest. The trail is good in some places and barely existant in others. More snow was encountered along the way. We finally reached the Lake to find it mostly frozen, although the falls are quite full and beautiful. The area is quite rugged and I wouldn't recommend the trip for small children. There are too many hazards including cliffs and steep slopes. There weren't too many backpacking groups in the area. A few parties had settled for the ridge on Mount Margaret and there was one party at Lake Lillian. We had Twin Lakes to ourselves, thanks to the early season and snowy conditions. It was quite a pleasant place. The sky even cleared off towards late afternoon and we had blue sky and sunshine well into the late June evening. On the way out, we were lucky to avoid any rain until a few sprinkles began to fall just as we were getting close to the cars. Later on, we had a good time watching a torrential downpour from the warmth of the Pancake House Restaurant at the Summit. We gave thanks to the weather gods that we had got out in time to avoid being drenched.

Inspired from last week's cross-country route (see Horseshoe Lake), another seemed to be in order for this week. A link-up of Rachael, Rampart, Lillian, and Twin Lakes became the objective late on a Friday whilst laying on the sofa recovering from a difficult week's work. From popular Rachel Lake, easily locate the trail continuing to stunning Rampart Lakes - a collection of barely interlocking tarns improbably perched near the top of a ridge. From here, a boot-tread leads up and over an obvious pass and quickly descends to two unnamed grassy lakelets at the head of a cirque. These are not unlike a scaled-down version of remote, photogenic, and magnificent Yang-Yang Lakes in the North Cascades. The boot-tread becomes invisible in a few places through here, however soon picks up again as one nears the pass overlooking Lake Lillian. Dropping down to Lake Lillian, I followed a quick 4.5 miles back to where I had stashed my mountain bike at the Lillian trailhead. Fourteen miles of mostly downhill riding takes one back to the Rachel Lake trailhead. Wildlife observed consisted of one red-tail hawk, one marmot, and one frog. Peaks observed included Hi-Box, the Lemah Spires, Alta, Huckleberry, Alaska, Granite, McClellan's Butte, Stuart, and Rainier. This is a highly enjoyable one day program, though not for beginners: a modicum of navigational skills is in order, and a total of 26 miles are traveled: a marathon.

First let me say my wife lost her Vertech Avocet altimeter watch between lake Lillian and the car. The trail reaches lake Lillian and abruptly stops between two steep rock cliffs. Hikers often climb these slippery faces and can slide/fall into the lake. Recently we observed two men urging and lifting two young boys up the slippery flaky left side trail in an attempt to reach the lake outlet. The smallest boy fell into the lake who was instantly followed by the two men diving headlong into the lake. Before we could reach them the uncle was racing down the mountain with his whimpering nephew in his arms. We loaned our jackets to the father who was freezing. A word to those who wish to go past the cliff face on the right. Take the path to the right of the rock approximately 100 feet before the lake. If the slope appears too steep go 50 feet farther to the right where you will find a user-friendly safe path up and around the big rock. From here, the wonders of Rampart Ridge and Rampart Lakes are yours.