Thompson
Lake
06-08-24
Gary
was free for a Saturday hike.
At first we settled on Diablo Lake. The forecast high temperature grew
to the mid 80s or more and that was too much for me on a trip that is
out in the open quite a bit, We kicked around other ideas and I
suggested Thompson Lake. I first hiked to Thompson in 2013.
I had another visit in 2019.
I
told Gary and John about it many times. It was finally time for Gary to
hike there. The trip is mostly in forest and the temperature was
forecast to peak at 74F. That sounded good to me. After a lot of long
droves and very early meetings we decided to meed in Seattle
at
7:30 am. It is just under an hour drive to the trailhead. We did
reached the trailhead at 8:24 am. There were only three or four spots
left. I took one. The two cars right behind me took two more. 8:30 am
is not too late to be sure of a parking spot. At the end of the day we
found more cars parked in unofficial spots but they were not blocking
anyone. It was no surprise that the Mailbox Peak lot was full and we
saw folks walking the road from at least half a mile farther up the
road.
We were packed and on our way at 8:32 am. A big group started just
after us. We set a pretty good pace to get ahead of them. I started
with a short sleeve shirt and within half a mile I zipped off my pants
legs. It was warming up fast. Right away I saw starflowers. Lots of
them. That was it for the day. There were no more starflowers. Next
were bleeding hearts. They are seen all along our trip. Many were
nearly finished down low but there were some near peak higher up. This
was not a great wildflower hike but we did see them off and on. We
caught up with a few slower hikers and were passed by some faster ones.
After reaching the old Granite Creek Road/Trail we neared the creek. It
still has a lot of water in it. There are a couple places where we had
good views of the creek. We stopped on the bridge over Granite Creek
for some photos and videos. It was loud with the high level of water.
After the creek come the many places where culverts carried water under
the old road. Now they are small stream crossings. There were flat
rocks placed in the water on the wider crossings. I made it over all of
them with dry feet and without taking out my poles. On the way down We
did use poles. Thee were a lot more bleeding hearts, trillium, and
yellow violets. Though the road was a clearcut years ago, now it was
mostly in shade as the brush and trees have grown high. We reached the
Granite Lakes/Thompson Lake junction at 10:09 am. We had hiked 3.3
miles so far. We had a lot more solitude after the junction. We did see
a couple hikers coming down from Thompson Lake but far less of a crowd
than on the route to Granite Lakes.
The old road heading to the Defiance Trail/Thompson Lake goes from
3070' to about 3950' gaining almost 900' in 1.1 miles. That is steep
for an old road. The Defiance Trail is narrow and very steep in places.
It is very narrow and steep on the descent from the ridge top to
Thompson
Lake. Trip reports mentioned snow just a few weeks ago. I hoped that
the last of the snow would be gone how. It was. The trail leaves the
old road and soon begins to descend with nice switchbacks. At the
bottom it crosses a creek and begins a steady climb to the ridge top.
We were passed by a hiker and her dog along here. The ridge top is at
about 4250', the highest point of the trip. Thompson Lake is at 3654'.
We lost that 600' in only .40 miles. That is a 1500' per mile pace.
That climb on the way out would not be easy. The trail was dry and the
footing was fine. We dropped to the edge of the big boulder field at
the end of the lake and had views down to the lake. One of the islands
had burned since my 2019 visit. There was no sign of any fire at the
lake itself.
We went back into forest and continued to a junction. Left goes north
along the lake towards the outlet. We went right to south end of the
lake. The last bit was through the boulder field. We found the hiker
with her dog on the shore and two others fishing farther along the
shore. We sat down in between them for out lunch break. It was now
11:47 am. Right on time for lunch. Clouds had come in and the all blue
sky when we started was now mostly cloudy. It was still quite warm with
some direct sunshine. The hiker left first and then the two hikers who
had been fishing. We had the lake to ourselves. Our break lasted until
12:32 pm. I could have spent another couple hours. We still had quite a
way to hike back. We hiked back to the junction and took the path down
the lake. It has a few logs that have fallen across it and a few creeks
to cross. At the other end we left forest and had a good view back up
the lake. We could see waterfalls coming down the boulder field at the
south end. Crossing the outlet was possible on a bunch of half
submerged logs but we had no desire to go across and back. We started
back.
A short way back we saw a campsite above the trail. From there we could
look down on the small lake/pond below the outlet. It had a lot of
silver snags around the shore and on an island. We went back to the
junction and prepared for the 600' climb. I took off a windshirt that
protected me from the mosquitoes. There were just enough of them to be
bothersome. I needed short sleeves for the climb. We passed a couple
groups coming down as we ascended. The trail is just wide enough to let
others pass by. It was a slow buy steady climb. By the time we reached
the ridge top we were at 4000' of elevation gain. That is as much as
Mailbox Peak and we were just on a hike to a lake and we still had some
more elevation to gain. We dropped off the ridge, crossed the creek,
and hiked back up to the start of the Defiance Trail. Now we just had
that steep road descent back to the Granite Lakes Trail.
I had told Gary that on my 2019 trip I had seen a lot of saprophytes
growing in the dark forest just off the old road. I looked but did not
see any while coming down. We did see a huge one coming down. It was as
tall as my hiking pole which is over four feet tall. We reached the
Granite Lakes junction at 2:48 pm. Now we just had 3.3 miles of
downhill. W still had 2200' of elevation to lose. As expected, we did
see more people on this popular trail. Some folks were still heading up
and more were now heading down. Even with overcast, the day was getting
warmer. We took a break at the bridge over Granite Creek. That was
about it for breaks. We hiked to Annette Lake on Thursday
afternoon/evening and now we were doing the most gain of the year. It
started to add up in the last few miles. The Annette and Thompson trips
totaled 19 miles with 6100' of gain. That is a lot for us older guys.
We left the old road and finished on the newer Granite Creek Connector
Trail. It is much softer on the feet and plenty wide to pass other
hikers. Just what we needed by this point.
We reached the parking lot at 4:30 pm. The lot had some open spots with
some cars parked in unofficial spots as mentioned earlier. For the day
we hiked just over 11.5 miles with 4200' of gain. I find it interesting
that this trip near Mailbox Peak has more elevation gain to get to a
lake. Speaking of lakes, I can't recall the last time we have done four
consecutive hikes to lakes. The included two really rough trails, a
great easy trail, and 4200' of gain. The overcast was appreciated. It
was in the mid 70s when we finished but it could have been much warmer
if the morning blue sky stayed longer. There was a nice if not
overwhelming wildflower show. I have had plenty of those the past
month. The short drive home was also great. Gary managed a first time
hike to Thompson even though he had hiked much of the route before.
Summer weather is just starting and I have had six consecutive
excellent hikes, none of them in the Issaquah Alps. Bring on summer!
![001](001_Small.jpg)
Gary Starting Out
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![002](002_Small.jpg)
South Bessemer Mountain
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![004](004_Small.jpg)
Mossy Rock
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![007](007_Small.jpg)
Narrow Green Trail
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![009](009_Small.jpg)
Hanging Moss
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![010](010_Small.jpg)
View Of Granite Creek
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![011](011_Small.jpg)
Gary On Bridge
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![013](013_Small.jpg)
Creek From Bridge
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![019](019_Small.jpg)
Crossing Streams
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![021](021_Small.jpg)
Flowering Shrub
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![024](024_Small.jpg)
Trillium
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![028](028_Small.jpg)
On Defiance Trail
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![031](031_Small.jpg)
Dropping To Lake
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![036](036_Small.jpg)
Gary Descending
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![038](038_Small.jpg)
Lake Is In Sight
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![044](044_Small.jpg)
On Lakeshore
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![049](049_Small.jpg)
Gary At Thompson Lake
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![051](051_Small.jpg)
Waterfall Above
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![053](053_Small.jpg)
Garter Snake
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![059](059_Small.jpg)
Other End Of Lake
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![061](061_Small.jpg)
Boater On Lake
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![067](067_Small.jpg)
Lake Below Thompson
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![069](069_Small.jpg)
Huckleberry
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![074](074_Small.jpg)
Last Look At Lake
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![078](078_Small.jpg)
Steep & Rooty
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![Gary1](Gary1_Small.jpg)
Jim Crossing Creek
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![086](086_Small.jpg)
Tall Pinedrop
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![087](087_Small.jpg)
More Green Trail
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![088](088_Small.jpg)
Spring Beauties
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![091](091_Small.jpg)
Wild Ginger
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![099](099_Small.jpg)
Bleeding Hearts
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![103](103_Small.jpg)
Another Small Falls
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![106](106_Small.jpg)
Salmonberry Flower
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![108](108_Small.jpg)
Granite Creek Again
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![113](113_Small.jpg)
Cinquefoil
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Click on thumbnails to get
larger pictures.
Trips
- 2024
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