Mac Peak August 2, 2005

 Approached the Deception Lake basin from the Tonga Ridge Rd, which was about 10 miles long.  4+ miles of that was amazing scenic curvy driving.  Descended down to Deception creek, and followed trail along the riverside until ascending to the Pacific Crest Trail.  Once there, it was only a short jaunt to the lakes.  During a lunch break along the shoreline, my brother and I heard human-like noises, which we couldn’t help but to respond in high pitch pterodactyl screeches.  The confused individuals turned out to be a scout troop from Issaquah doing a 50 miler.  We had a short chat as to why we were kinda out in the middle of nowhere with only daypacks.  We planned on ascending Mac Peak from the northern side, since it appeared to be the easiest way according to my sweat soaked tattered topo map.  Afterward, we bushwhacked up along the side of the main lake up to a smaller lake higher.  From there we could see a nice talice slope going up to the ridge.  About 1 hour of rock hopping on giant sun bleached granite slabs later, we hit the ridge crest to Mac Peak.  However, to our left….cliffs, to our right… more cliffs… and ahead of us, a near cliff face that could be possible, but almost suicidal in a descent.  Took a moment to soak up views, and enjoy the wind-tunnel like features of our little notch in the ridge crest.  Could see the gun-sight appearance of Nimbus and Thunder Mountain to the north from our previous hikes.  After suffering a humiliating turnaround due to cliffbands, and not wanting to descend all the way down the other side to get around them, we tried to traverse along the side to find another way up.  Once again, we got turned around by slopes that were “possible” but would be tempting fate.  With that, we descended back to the lake to recover a bit.  Very tempting it was to jump in the lake.  Very pleasant temperature surprisingly enough.  However, the fact that after getting out of the lake would reveal a body void of any insect protection, and would be rather unwise given the current aggressive bug density.  Returned to the car and hit Jack-in-the-Box hard on the way home.