TROUT LAKE — When hikers reach Wapiki Lake, often the first action is to open their pack and get out a jacket — even in summer.
It can be 80 degrees, yet the swirling breeze — a regular occurrence at the 10-acre lake in Indian Heaven Wilderness — feels cold on sweaty skin.
Wapiti Lake, at elevation 5,236 feet, is in a bowl with slopes 400 feet higher surrounding on three sides. The breeze is particularly welcoming during years when mosquitoes are abundant, which is not the case in a very dry 2015.
According to Washington’s South Cascades Volcanic Landscapes, by Marge and Ted Mueller, Wapiki Lake and nearby Lemei Rock once were the source of extensive lava flows, with thin, fluid basalt making its way east as far as Trout Lake and Husum.
Lemei trail No. 34 in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is one of the lesser-used routes into the interior of Indian Heaven, a gentle plateau straddling the crest of the Cascade Mountains dotted with hundreds of lakes, tarns and meadows.
The east-side approaches to Indian Heaven are a little longer and little steeper, but worth the effort.
“I’d rate this trail about a 7 (on a 1-to-10 scale) so far, and I’m not even at our destination,” said Randy McMurrin of Prosser, Wash., who was heading to Wapiki Lake for an overnight stay. “The trail is in good condition and the woods here are really pretty.”
An out-and-back hike from the trailhead in Little Goose campground to Wapiki Lake is 7.4 miles. To out-and-back on Lemei trail to its junction with Indian Heaven trail No. 33 at Cultus Lake is 12.35 miles. A loop trip using trails Nos. 34 and 33, plus 2.5 miles of walking on road No. 24 between Cultus Creek and Little Goose campgrounds, is 12.24 miles.
Hiking beyond Wapiki Lake is highly recommended. There are excellent views of the lake from a cinder slope about a mile (and 600 feet elevation) beyond Wapiki. Then, trail No. 34 skirts under massive Lemei Rock, the tallest peak in Indian Heaven Wilderness.
To make this hike, start on Filloon trail No, 102 in the back of Little Goose campground.
Filloon No. 102 continues for 1.02 mile to a junction with Lemei trail No. 34. Turn right and climb for 2.25 miles to the junction with Wapiki Lake trail No. 34A. The side trail leads 0.43 mile and 200 elevation gain to the lake.
Wapiki is a gorgeous lake. There are a couple of nice campsites, plus some meadows and tarns nearby.
Stacie Kelsey of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said the lake is stocked every other year with 500 tiny rainbow trout, that grow to a catchable size.
The lake was stocked in 2011, 2013 and this summer.
Once back on trail No. 34, at a minimum, hike another 1.06 miles to the upper viewpoint of the lake and to views of Lemei Rock.
Beyond Lemei Rock, the trail loses elevation for its final 1.3 miles to its junction with Indian Heaven trail No. 33 at Cultus Lake.
