Date:	Saturday, October 24, 2009
Trip Types:	Hiking
Plan:	We will hike to Heather Lake on the heather lake trail, located off of the Mountain Loop Highway near Granite Falls, Washington. The hike gains about 1200 vertical feet over 2 miles. The hike will be 4 miles round trip. We plan to explore the area as we hike.
Report:	We drove past Granite falls on the Mountain Loop Highway to the Heather Lake trail head located on the Mount Pilchuck forest road. We struck out on the trail at about 1000. The trail is fairly well maintained; however due to the recent rain many of the normally dry drainages that cross the trail were active. As a result there were many places along the trail where you had to hop rocks across areas of moving water. As you might expect, the kids absolutely loved it. The trail winds up about 1500 vertical fee, and is rocky with roots and challenging water crossings. Essentially it was like a jungle gym for the students. By the time we reached the lake (2hours), while some of the kids were still moving strong, there were several that were out of energy. But all of us were truly satisfied with our accomplishment and were rewarded by the stunning beauty of the lake. We ate lunch on a large boulder perched over the lake. Looking around the walls of the cirque, numerous water falls could be seen lacing through divots in the the rock faces. We started the hike back at about 1:00 and worked our way carefully down the trail. We arrived right on time (2:30) at the trail head and hopped in the cars and headed back to the school. We arrived at the school at 4:15.

Photos

Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls	Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls	Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls	Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls
Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls	Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 [Tukwila] Heather Lake near Granite Falls