After I skied on Saturday morning, I met Rachel and Tim at Rattlesnake Lake for hike #10 from our hike book. As you can see from the GPS track below, we walked down to the lake since we had never been there before. The lake looks a bit low and the map seems to confirm that as it shows we were supposedly walking in the water.
Looking up from the lake, it's easy to spot Rattlesnake Ledge jutting out from the mountain. The hike from the lake to the ledge isn't too difficult. The trail is wide and very full of people. It gets a bit annoying at times, but we made great time up the mountain and passed a lot of people. After a quick stop at the crowded ledge, we continued up the mountain and left the crowds behind.
From that point, the trail gets more difficult and there were only a few hikers. We had plans of going all the way to the top, but after we realized there was snow on the last mile, we decided to turn around. Our footwear wasn't ready for that much snow and we would have ended up with cold, soaked feet.
The hike was fantastic and has jumped up near the top of my list. If you go on the same hike, bypass the first ledge and go up another 0.5-0.75 miles to find another smaller ledge that will be much less crowded and offer even better views.
Saturday was good practice for my Camp Muir hike which is coming up on June 6. Mike and I have scheduled vacation for that day, and I rented randonnee ski gear. Hopefully the weather is as beautiful as it was today!
There are pictures in the photo gallery and more panoramic photos. There is a bug in the photo gallery which doesn't let me put these panoramas there, so I'll leave them in this post. I think they help to communicate the vast views better than the single photos.
