The road to the trailhead had some fairly large ruts, I would be hesitant to bring a lower clearance car to the the trailhead, my Subaru Forester did great. No problem finding parking on Friday at 1pm.
There is no time for warmup, this trail is steep right from the start the entire 1.5 miles up to Hope Lake. There is one large tree down across the trail where you'll need to drop your pack to crawl under. This part isn't easy with a full pack, for sure!
Once you meet up with the PCT the grade is much more gradual so you can put mileage in.
We set up camp at Trap Lake - watch Alltrails for the turn, it is fairly obvious if you're going up the trail but easy to miss if you're going down. There were something like 6 other groups there that night, most if not all campsites were taken unless there were more further away from the water. Perfect day for a swim. We did not notice any mosquitos at this lake which was much welcomed.
With all our heavy stuff out of the pack, we set course for Thunder Mountain Lakes. The PCT is beautiful and straightforward. Once you pass the unmarked turnoff towards Thunder Mountain, it gets steep again, this is the hardest part of the trail. Some of the navigation through the boulder field was not obvious, there are sporadic cairns but AllTrails was very useful for route finding. There is one snow patch you have to cross that poses no problem at all.
Thunder Mountain Lakes were stunning in the dusk lighting. Crazy view of Mount Daniel. There were 3 total groups up there. It got very windy overnight so hopefully they made it out OK, there really isn't a way to stake your tent up there. The bugs were annoying and very hungry at this lake so come prepared.
Note about wildlife - this trail is teeming with critters! We saw a brown bear minding his own business high above Trap Lake, maybe 30 feet off the PCT. We also saw a mountain goat, plenty of marmots, many chatty pikas, and a baby grouse.
Overall this is a trip that surprised me with how difficult it was but the rewards were absolutely worth it. Overall stats were 16.25 miles with 4,340 feet gain.
Length
Elevation Gain
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