Thanks to the great Washington Trails Association website, we were able to find a hike that checked all the boxes: between 5 and 7 miles, dog friendly, and to either a mountain vista or a lake. With side trips to Ptarmigan Lakes and Mount Sawyer, this trip was everything we were looking for.
The parking area was pretty full when we got there, so we were a bit nervous about how full the camping would be at the lake, but then as we started hiking a group of about 15 people came off the trail. They told us there was plenty of camping at the lake – plus the big campsite they vacated that morning.
The hike in was a bit of a trudge at times, but aside from a couple chunks of straight up and places where you have to either go over and under (if you’re a medium mister) giant trees, it’s a easy hike.
After getting to Fisher Lake and setting up camp (at the large campsite the group told us about), we continued hiking on to Ptarmigan Lakes.
After getting to Lower Ptarmigan Lake, we crossed the scree field to continue on to Upper Ptarmigan Lake.
That night we had a “fire” and stargazed for a bit before heading to bed. Few things beat falling asleep in the woods with my favorite tent-mates.
When we woke up the next morning we went berry picking. I set a timer and we picked as many huckleberries and blueberries we could find (the huckleberries when into a pie with apples from Lizommy’s backyard!). The photo above is nearly a pound of hucks (Johnny was only picking blueberries) – picked in 30 minutes without walking more than 5 ft from our campsite!
It was a gorgeous day, so after packing up camp we hiked back over to Lower Ptarmigan Lake to enjoy the water before heading back to the trailhead.
After getting back to camp and grabbing our gear, we hit the trail out. Since we were at Fisher Lake and had the opportunity to add a short jaunt to Sawyer Mountain, we of course did so – mainly so we could call this our “Nephew Hike” in honor of 2/5th of the cute kiddos that call us “Uncle D” and “Auntie Katt”.
The hike out once back to the main trail was a bit of a trudge thru the dark, but I felt great. I’ve been going to the gym semi- to fairly-regularly this year and this was the first hike I could really feel that.
Lessons learned from this trip: Snacks and Vitamin Water at the car should be standard – and if we have an extra freeze dried meal and are all starving before we drive away, take the 20 minutes to boil water and let it hydrate so you don’t have to drive nearly 2 hours to the closest fast food.
