Alpine Lakes National Wilderness Area
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
My job at the time required me to travel to the West Coast a number of times. While it was my intention to extend a business trip to permit me to visit some of the great public lands out west, I was reluctant to spend additional time away from family. However, in October 2014 I decided to spend a few additional days to explore Washington. Numerous articles talked about The Enchantments.
I left Seattle at Noon on Thursday to travel to Leavenworth to attempt a summit of McClellan Peak in the The Enchantments region of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. Unfortunately, I arrived at the forest service too late to obtain a permit. As a result, I needed to wait until the following morning. I drove further down the road to Eightmile Campground, and car camped the night.
Because the lottery system was still in affect for the few remaining days of the season, I needed to submit my request along with another twenty or so people who assembled at the forest service office early Friday morning. Another solo adventurer suggested we pool our selections, which was a great idea, as we obtained a permit to the highly coveted Enchantments.
The person I teamed up with is a Seattle native, and moved like a jack rabbit. It was a 15 mile hike to Lake Viviane, close to the base of McClellan Peak. This left me pretty exhausted, and I left my partner to compose a series of spectacular photographs (similar to those above). Saturday, we set off to summit McClellan Peak. We had some difficulty route finding, but I fortunately relied on my partner's knowledge of the area to set us off on a good line. While there was a little Class III and IV climbing, the difficulty wasn't too bad. We achieved the summit of McClellan Peak around 10-10:30am. After enjoying the peak for awhile, we headed back down.
Unfortunately, it did not appear that I would be able to arrive at SeaTac on time for my Sunday flight home to Chicago. Therefore, after having a quick snack at Noon, I started back toward the car in Leavenworth. Going back down wasn't easier. It took me eight hours to return back to the car, but I did make my flight back to Chicago.