Kirsten and Steve invited Brooke and I to go backpacking with them over the weekend. We decided to go to Robin Lakes, and climb Granite Mountain. The trail is about 7 miles to Robin Lakes and about 2,800 ft elevation gain. Not too bad other than a few steep climbs. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest on Saturday, but it was supposed to clear up on Sunday. Instead, it snowed on us Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Not really what you'd expect in August.
Since the weather was bad, and we couldn't see much above us when we got to Tuck Lake (about 900 ft lower than Robin Lakes) we decided to stop and camp there. Sunday morning we decided to stick to the plan of climbing Granite Mountain despite the snow coming down. The climb is a little under 2,000 ft from Tuck Lake to the peak at 7,144 ft. It was a fun easy climb, but we couldn't see much from the top. I guess we'll have to go back to see what the view is like...
The North end of Hyas Lake.
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Looking down on Hyas Lake after turning off the Deception Pass trail onto the Robin Lakes trail.
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Tuck Lake.
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This is Tucks Pot, which is right next to Tuck Lake. We camped between the two lakes.
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It was raining a little as we set up camp, but not too bad.
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Either someone told a joke, or Kirsten is trying to drink rain...
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Cathedral Rock peaked out of the clouds across the valley every once in a while.
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Brooke, Kirsten, and Steve trying to stay warm and dry Sunday morning.
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And me too...
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Still cloudy above us, but why come all the way out here and not stick to the original plan to climb Granite Mountain?
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And then the snow started falling.
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And then a little harder.
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Making our way up from Tuck Lake to Robin Lakes.
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Some wildflowers trapped under the snow.
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That's one of Robin Lakes down there. Kind of hard to see through the snow...
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Brooke taking a picture of some wildflowers during a break in the snow.
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Brooke and I. Looks like its snowing again.
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And then it threatened to clear up and turn into a nice day.
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But then the clouds came back.
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That's a fine looking Christmas tree.
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We saw the sky over Granite Mountain briefly, but it didn't last long.
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Kirsten taking a picture of Robin Lakes below us.
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We got a little too high and had to decend a bit.
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Looking SE along the ridge from the peak. Not much to see today...
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Looking back the way we came.
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It seemed to clear up a little on the way down, but was still drizzling a bit.
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The bigger of Robin Lakes with some sun actually shining on it.
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A rainbow over Tuck Lake.
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Hyas Lake from above on the way down.
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