
Trip Report
Day hike - Talapus and Olallie Lakes from Pratt Lake Trail (Exit 47)
This morning I enjoyed a wonderful snowy, healing outing from Pratt Lake Trailhead to Olallie and Talapus Lakes with beautiful fresh snow. Balm for the soul. Quiet, muffled, pristine, and lovely. And nobody at Exit 47 (2 ladies and their dog came up from Exit 45).
- Tue, Dec 17, 2024
- Talapus Lake Trail
- Day Hiking
- Successful
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- Snow and ice on road
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Snow exists at the trailheads at BOTH Exit 45 and Exit 47. When I left at noon traffic eastbound was bumper-to-bumper with five miles of trucks chaining up for the Pass. Westbound only had truckers removing chains and a handful of cars. I think there must have been an accident at the Pass. But when I arrived at 7:15 a.m. there was nobody in the parking lot and only a few trees down from November's windstorm.
I started from the parking lot at dawn, letting my eyes adjust to the overcast skies and near-dark. I was greeted by three deer darting through the woods and a flock of golden-crowned kinglets, but otherwise, the only other bird I saw was a downy woodpecker at Talapus Lake. There is snow at the parking lot and intermittent snow on the trail, increasing to several inches by the Pratt-Olallie/Talapus sign. Plenty of running water but the streams are all crossable. I had snowshoes, poles, and microspikes but never needed them. Someone with good footing should have no trouble hiking this -- except the hip flexors have to work a little harder!
I think most people starting from Exit 47 are going to Granite, and most people heading for Pratt Lake Basin are starting their hike from Exit 45. The stretch from Talapus/Olallie is pretty recognizable and compact, but the trail from the Granite junction to the Pratt/Talapus sign has the least disturbed trail.
My WOW moment came after I'd visited both Olallie and Talapus Lakes and considered heading up to the Pratt Lake Trail overlook before returning to my car. It suddenly got very dark as the wind picked up and I heard odd "whumping" sounds all around me.
I looked up to see a massive amount of snow clogging the air, falling down in clumps, so I hugged a tree, bent over, and covered my face. When the boughs had dropped all their snow, I had several inches of snow covering my boots and a thin dusting all over my coat. I started laughing. In 32 years of hiking in the PNW, I've never before experienced what I can only call a "tree avalanche" but what I think is technically called "snow shedding": lots of recent fresh snow, an uptick in wind, new precipitation adding to the weight, and all the high snow dropped at once. I tried getting it on video but I'm not sure I succeeded.
All told I think the hike was about 8.8 miles and 2536' gain according to AllTrails. I came back refreshed and happy... to find nobody in the parking lot and 5 miles of trucks lined up from Exit 42-47 putting on chains. I think there must have been an accident as traffic was CRAWLING heading eastward to the Pass -- big fluffy flakes were coming down -- but nonexistent westbound (except truckers removing chains.)