Today Heather and I got up and ate breakfast kind at the campground. I used my fabulous little fancy feast cat food can alcohol stove. We had hot tea and coffee with our breakfast and I had some couscous with milk and cherries. Then we headed out to the trailhead getting going at about 9:30. We hiked up the Rainbow Trail about a half a mile to the Swift Creek Trail and then took that up to the Lake of the Clouds Trail and hiked on for about another mile on up to the lakes. The trail wasn’t too bad. The grade seemed pretty manageable – but I only had a day pack on and it all seemed easier. I was super tired today though for whatever reason. We got to the lakes just as it started to sprinkle some rain and we hiked up to the second one to get a picture but the turned around and headed back into the trees as some thunder rolled around in the basin. Total up to the lakes from the Swift Creek Trail by the Gibson TH was 4.5 and 2,400 ft. We headed back down at 12:45 and took the Lake of the Clouds Trail the whole way. It was graded even more and a more pleasant hike than the Swift Creek Trail. But it was a mile farther up the Rainbow Tr to the Lake of the Clouds TH making it 6.3 mi to get to the lakes that way. The total round trip loop was 10.8 and we got back to the pick up by 4. We came back to the campground and took showers and are supper. I could get use to this day hiking too! A nice change and this campground is in the middle of so many trails!
