Fastpacking on a Whim @ Rainbow Lake
With summer fast approaching, Kaytlyn and I decided to go for a quick after-work fastpack in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness just west of Snoqualmie Pass.
Katy had about a 14-hour window between time-points at lab, so we decided a great way to take advantage of the time would be to unwind in the woods, by a lake. It helped that the weather was shaping up to be excellent: no wind, low in the high-40’s at ~4000′, and clear.
We left work at about 6pm, and with light traffic were at the Talupus Lake trailhead about an hour or so later.
The beauty of fastpacking is that we’re traveling light, so the remaining 3 hours of daylight were plenty to run the ~5 miles to Rainbow Lake, set up camp, make dinner, and relax/unwind after a busy week for both of us.
We were more surprised than we should have been to find the lake still partially iced over and nearly all the backcountry sites still under snow. We found one dry camp not too far from shore, so we set up the tent and enjoyed a quiet evening. The only folks we saw on the trail were another couple camping at the lake, not too far from our spot.
The next morning we woke up early, packed up, and ran back to the car as the weekend crowds started to move up the trail. As we drove back to Katy’s lab, we were both pretty excited to have snuck in a relaxing backpacking trip in our ‘backyard’ all while still meeting our other commitments. We’re hoping to do a few more of these mini-trips throughout the next few months.
This trip also served another purpose: to do a little more gear-testing of our fastpacking setup, since we’re planning a few more trips this summer, and many of them are certainly more remote than a 5-mile out-and-back on a crowded trail near Seattle.
Our gear worked swimmingly, more or less:
- – The Big Agnes UL Fly Creek 2 Platinum tent we picked up at a discount last fall is lighter than our previous hammock set up, and gave us a better nights’ sleep than sharing a hammock.
- – We shared a Therm-A-Rest Navis 45 deg. bag – which meant some serious cuddling to stay warm – but it worked fine in the mid-40’s. We wore our puffy’s and other layers to sleep.
- – – We didn’t use a sleeping pad, and the ground was cold. But it’s fastpacking… we knew what we were getting into.
- – Layers included Patagonia Houdini pants, Arcteryx Squamish hoodies, both of which are staples for Katy and I in our fast’n’light adventures. We also had light long sleeves, lightweight synthetic puffy jackets, our running tights, and lightweight gloves/beanies/buffs. All our layers together comfortably got us through the chilly evening/night/morning around ~4,000 feet.
- – Katy’s Osprey Rev 18 was still great. I’m not in love with my Gregory 18L pack, and am looking for another to test out for better comfort-while-running.
- – I’m continuing to break in my Merril All Out Peaks. I’ve put these shoes through a lot of muddy and snowy conditions this past winter and spring, and they continue to blow my mind with their grip, stability, and how fast it is to run in them. Katy wore her Pearl Izumi Trail N2’s, which she loves for these kinds of wooded/muddy trails.
We’ve tested this set up before, when we were traveling through Central America this past December. It worked great then, but it’s good to see this set up in action here in the PNW.
A few pics:
Katy excited to get to some ridge running and cool trees!
Great views on the way.
Cell-Pic in bad light, but: our tent in the one decent non-snowy spot we found.
Morning views at the lake
Morning views at the lake pt. 2