We hiked last week, but neglected to publish a blog. It was a beautiful hike, as usual, with a lot of off trail. We explored the Five Lakes Basin area, allowing ourselves more time than we have in the past. We started at Grouse Ridge and hiked towards Glacier Lake, but took the Sand Ridge trail, which inexplicably is not shown on any of our maps. I'm not sure why this is true because it is very nice, albeit a bit steep with loose footing where it ascends the ridge. Spectacular views from the ridge, with remarkable carpets of flowers. We left the trail at the first lake, unnamed, heading across open granite country, to our first destination, another unnamed lake, with an amazing campsite. Stone furniture enough for a pretty good sized group, complete with (very comfortable) chairs, tables, fireplace, etc. it was an engineering marvel. A perfect place for lunch. After eating and admiring the beautiful lake (deep, with sheer cliffs on the far side), we continued XC to Five Lakes Basin itself, heading to another wonderful campsite one of us has camped at over the years. It looked like a great place to stay a few days, exploring, swimming, just hanging out. From there we started heading back, past several more lakes and up a route we've taken In the past, the usual access "trail" to the Five Lakes area. It put us back on Sand Ridge Trail, fairly close to where we had left it earlier. We decided not to head back via Sand Ridge, but to XC (yes, again) to the "official" Glacier Lake trail. It runs roughly parallel and is only a half mile or less away from where we were. Our maps did show a connector, but I can't say we ever found it. We did make it OK after a bit of flailing about, and cruised on back to the cars (the last bit climbing back to the parking area left our tongues hanging out).=
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