Lake Ingalls, Longs Pass — Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015

Snoqualmie Region > Salmon La Sac/Teanaway

My first trip on the east side of the cascades and boy was it rewarded. For starters, the road to the trailhead is in pretty fantastic shape considering it gets a ton of traffic and is a mixture of dirt/gravel for the last half of the trip once you turn onto Teanaway Road. There is a good amount of space for parking and looks like they're doing what they can to maintain it via a survey team. As the description states, trail is in really good shape and very easy to follow. You are exposed for most of the trip so taking precautions to protect yourself is definitely recommended. Felt as though this was a pretty moderate hike with some areas that required a tiny bit of effort but in short doses. Once past the campground area it can be a little difficult to lose the trail if you're not paying attention on the rocks but the use of cairns as well as being able to see the trail ahead of you helps out. The wildlife on this hike is splendid. There were roughly ten goats spread out near the campgrounds and they were not too worried about any of us being there. One of the kids was "separated" from his mother and decided to stand in the middle of the trail and whine as loudly as possible for a couple of minutes. Eventually she realized what the commotion was about and came to save the day. Never felt threatened by the goats but did our best to keep some space as to make sure everything was safe and sound. The lake was one of the better looking alpine lakes I have been to. Water was extremely cold but somewhat refreshing after such an exposed hike. After being at the lake for about fifteen minutes you could see a huge, billowing cloud from what I can conclude was an incredibly and unfortunately large forest fire. Fantastic views at the lake and not too crowded. Was feeling pretty spry on the way back down and realizing I had a good amount of water left as well as the gorgeous weather, took a quick detour to head up Longs Pass trail. Spectacular views and I would recommend taking the quick detour, although I can understand why people may pass up on it. Like the trip report states, it's tough to find much better views on a relatively short hike like this. On the way back down roughly ten minutes before the trailhead we happened to run into a bear. Didn't seem to mind that we were there and was walking about fifteen feet off the trailhead. Notified a couple hikers of his presence but he didn't seem to care too much about what was going on.