Tinkham Tarns

The glory of living in Seattle is that it takes only about 45 minutes drive time to reach a trailhead that can take you to a place like this!  During the holiday weekend, I joined friends Paul, Sami, Jeanne, and Daisy (one year old the day before, making her about 7 in human years), for a glorious 5-lake hike up to the last of the Tinkham tarns, just below Tinkham Peak.

Here you will see the cliffs of the northeast face of Tinkham Peak, with talus slope and the remains of snow shed from their sheer heights.  It is this snow that feeds the tarn.  The tarn in turn, hosts a nice population of trout, most likely humped up there in a barrel on Drunken Charlie's back years ago.  Charlie was a sort of Johnny Troutseed, you might say.  I have tried to find more about him, but so far, no luck.  He's a legend around here and my brother tells me he stocked a lot of these mountain lakes.

The water was so clear you could see them, looking as though they were flying.

Such a thing must drive the fishermen absolutely nuts, to have to watch the while the smart ones turn up their noses at one's flies.  I think that day, though, they were eating mosquitoes, which is the only justification I can think of for mosquitoes.  Trout must be fed.  We humans were happy with light, cool breezes blowing mosquitoes away.

Sami, who likes to take a dip in cold waters gave the tarn a toes up rating of quite cold, and got out quickly to dry in the sun.


What a beautiful day!