Melakwa Lakes

July 22 - Melakwa Lakes & Pass: 12.8 miles, 4,000' gain 

I didn't know it at the time but the hike up to Melakwa Lakes and then beyond to the Melakwa Pass would be the last alpine hike of the season. It being an odd number year, things quickly switched to protein gathering with pink salmon and then that bled into bear season, then grouse, then crabs, then deer, then ducks, etc... Its really tough to take full advantage of the fall and also sit at my desk and write about it.

Back to the warm, sunny summer stuff: the hike starts out in a weird little, off grid neighborhood tucked between the east and west bound lanes of the freeway and right along Denny Creek. OnX thinks its all still National Forest land so maybe long term leases? From there to Hemlock Pass it is your typical, pretty nice Cascade hike as you follow Denny Creek: open boulder fields, waterfalls, switchbacks in tall trees. 

At about 4.5 miles in you hit Hemlock Pass at 4,600' but its well treed so you have to go just a little further for the views to really open up. From then on, any further exploration is just gravy. The trail peters out at the discharge of the smaller lake but Oak and I were feeling strong so we decided to try rock hopping up to Melakwa Pass and then down just a little ways to catch Chair Peak Lake.  

I already know what you are thinking, it doesn't look that bad. Just a hop, jump, and a skip to cover the last mile. If I was to try it again, I think it would be pretty civilized but I tried going up the creek and got pinned in by avalanche debris. Once I got out of that I tried sticking up higher on the rocks, not trusting the snow fields but that was also a rookie mistake. Regardless, the marmots kept up a steady stream of screams to protest that a hairless ape dared enter their sanctuary on a weekday. 

Just as I was getting to the top of the pass I could hear a couple guys chatting. Zero sign of tracks on the way up so the pass had been all alone for days but now the only two parties out there were cresting the pass from opposite directions within a minute of each other. Turns out their through hike plan actually had less altitude gain and lower mileage but at the time I was very impressed (and still look forward to replicating that 5-lake route soon). The views made an excellent lunch spot with Glacier Peak in the background and Chair Peak and Gem Lakes below. However, I didn't feel like busting out the microspikes just to say I visited another lake and then be punished for it by ending up 400' below my current elevation so this was as far as we got. 

The return trip to the lakes was awesome. My fellow hikers had gone straight down through the snowfields so I was able to follow folks that knew what they were doing and slide down like a pro without falling into any of these:

Overall, this turned out to be my favorite hike of 2021. A little bit of everything to keep anyone interested and just enough snow to keep the feet from overheating.

Programming note - I am so far behind! As alluded to at the start of the post, there are a lot of protein reports to make, we made it out to Lopez Island, and I have toddler hiking pictures to share! Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get to catch up by February. Until then, I hope everyone is having a great fall.