Melakwa Lake is a lake in King County whose name comes from a Chinook term for “mosquito”. Nuff said…

Pratt Lake trail, from Granite Mountain trailhead WA

Distance: 17 Miles 6 miles in to Pratt Lake, with a side hike to Lower Tuscoha Lake (.6 each way) and Melakwa (1.7 each way, 1500 feet)
Elevation Gain: 2300 Feet
Date: June 29 – 30, 2014
Hikers: Groucho, Harpo
Duration: overnight 1pm – 9:30am

Groucho sez:

We’re experimenting with micro trips – leaving late in the day (or around midday) and driving within an hour radius of the city for a short overnight. This works out great when you only have a limited amount of time, but still want to get a night in the woods. It’s also logistically easier to plan as a group trip, which lowers the threshold of investment and makes it easier to invite the homies…

For this trip we hiked the 6 miles into Pratt Lake, arriving at 5pm, set up camp, and made the 4.5 mile roundtrip to Melakwa Lake with only umbrellas and water, arriving back at camp just in time to catch sunset over Pratt.

The Alpine Lakes Wilderness is a large wilderness area spanning the Cascade Range of Washington state in the United States. The wilderness is located in parts of Wenatchee National Forest and Snoqualmie National Forest, and is approximately bounded by Interstate 90 and Snoqualmie Pass to the south and U.S. Route 2 and Stevens Pass to the north. The Alpine Lakes is the largest wilderness area near the population centers of Puget Sound, at approximately 390,000 acres,