![[Pasted image 20250105113132.jpg]] - 18 miles - 6000ft gain - Elapsed time: 7 hours - Area: [[Alpine Lakes Wilderness]] Parked at the Margaret trailhead at 4:30am. Cars parked along the road indicated how busy it was going to be later on the day. The last section to the trailhead is pretty bad with potholes etc. I had to go slow even with my SUV. I was a little concerned about finding the trail in the dark, but it was pretty obvious. It was great to hike all the way up in the dark before sunrise. The trail is hot, dry, and except for the view higher up largely uninteresting. On the way out I saw families heading there around noon with kids, and that just seems like a torture to me. I decided to do a little side-trip to enjoy the sunrise on Mount Margaret. Great views! I think that's already worth just a sunrise trip. Traverse to Lake Lillian is not the best maintained trail, but nothing too bad. It was quiet on the way in as well as out. At Twin Lakes it was sad to see a tent unnecessarily put on a non-durable surface. The trail (I believe it is not official?) climbing out of Lake Lillian to Rampart is steep and eroded. It starts before the descent into the lake to avoid a cliff along the water. On the way in I traversed east towards Rampart. That's a beautiful meadow with very wide views. Great section. On the way out I went over the pass, which offers better views of Rampart Lakes. There is a bit of snow left, but except for holes you wouldn't get hurt of anything happened. Rampart Lakes was as expected overloaded with tents, including tents on non-durable surfaces and not in established sites. The section to [[Alta Mountain]] has amazing views. Very broad views of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. I'll need to go back there with a higher quality camera. There were a couple of points were either a big step is needed or it's steep enough that it's really a climber bootpath. I wouldn't take a young kid or inexperienced person there. Hiking pole was handy. Mask compliance wasn't as bad as on previous hikes, but still not great. Most people are not prepared to put them on, and only do it when they see I wear a mask. While socially maybe less rude to at least have one, I'm afraid that's not very effective!!