Two of us headed out to Lake Janus and Grizzly Peak for a short overnight in the mountains. The trail was in great condition, there were excellent views of surrounding peaks and meadows, and there were plentiful ripe berries on the trail, making both of our first overnights since last season a success. Overall, we found the details in the trail description to be accurate and useful.
We left the Smithbrook trailhead around 1:30pm on Saturday. The drive up to the trailhead was in great gravel forest road condition with very few potholes; we saw a Porsche two seater happily parked. The parking lot was full and about a quarter mile of parked cars lined the road. On the trail, the first 1.25 miles to the PCT junction were fairly busy but as soon as we started the descent to Lake Janus, we were essentially alone until we reached the lake around 3:30pm. At Janus we enjoyed a long break by the lily pads; the bugs were surprisingly not a problem here.
After leaving Janus, the hike up to Grizzly peak was a nice climb. Since we had started in the afternoon, this section was pleasantly shaded for most of the way up. We did almost miss the water source 1.2 miles from the lake (which we heard is the last before Pear Lake from fellow hikers). If you’re looking for it, it is off the trail to the left (going up) and past a little campsite; you’ll have to take a little path down to the ravine. The stream is small but completely serviceable as we were able to use both our squeeze filter and pump to filter additional liters. The views of Glacier Peak along this section as we climbed were stunning.
We eventually arrived at Grizzly Peak around 6:45pm. We set up camp at the “modest” campground tucked away behind some trees at the peak before continuing along the PCT for about a half mile to the next meadow to eat dinner and watch the sunset. The bugs were worse at the campsite than at Janus, but the wind kept the mosquitos at bay. We did find bug nets to be useful while sitting still.
On our second day, we took our time with breakfast and left the peak around 9:15am. During our descent, we were quickly met with a steady stream of PCT through hikers, all in fantastic spirits and giving us inspiration to come back out for longer. What was shaded on our way up was now exposed and quite hot on the way down, but as a consolation we were able to see a marmot sunbathing on some boulders. We eventually made it back to the car just after 1pm where the parking lot was significantly less busy than the first day.
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