Talapus and Olallie Lakes

 4 Nov 2013

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The sun was shining although the forecast for later was rain. There was a trace of snow near the top of 4000-ft Mt. Si in our backyard, but we didn't think anything of that. Once C.J. finished checking the beta of the December magazine (and finding several uncorrected edits) we bailed out of the house.

We were able to drive all the way to the trailhead on FS 9030, the old Lookout Point Road (I think, although it doesn't show that name on the maps any more). We had last hiked up to Talapus Lake, about two-plus miles and 1200 ft elev. gain, several years ago on Christmas Eve. This time we didn't bother carrying snowshoes...we would not have needed them this time either. There was one car at the trailhead and we met three other people on the trail. I understand that that's a really low turnout for this trail.

Wilderness Boundary

We started up what appeared to be a continuation

C.J. at Ollalie Lake

of the road at 1100, crossed some swampy area on sturdy boardwalks and negotiated several switchbacks all in hem-fir-cedar forest. We didn't stop at Talapus and it was another 1.25 miles and 500 ft of elevation gain to Olallie Lake. We had been walking in frozen granular snow and ignoring the snow and drips from the trees most of the way up, but now the snow started getting deep enough to hide the trail as we reached the upper lake. BTW, we hadn't changed out of our warm clothes for the whole hike; it was that chilly. The sun was still shining on the far end of the lake but the clouds were starting to roll in when we sat down on our inflatable pads for lunch at 1310 or so. Later we continued on, hoping that the trail continued around the lake; it didn't

G at Talapus Lake

and we started back down around1345. It took just about two hours to reach the car with a stop at the lower lake to enjoy the view up into the mountains. Total mileage was probably just over seven considering the extra distance to the north end of the lake where the obvious trail petered out. This was our first hike since PDT changed over to PST and it was already getting gloomy as we hiked the last mile (sunset was supposed to be around 1650). At least the threatened rain held off until we were home and had had dinner.