[Brushbuffalo]

Our goal was to camp on top of Crater Mountain or as plan B, where the former lookout #2 was on Point 7054.

Crater Mountain from highway, south side

Katy and Craig and I began hiking from the Canyon Creek trailhead at about 9:30 a.m. on Saturday May 26. Granite and Canyon Creeks were running fast and high as we crossed on the relatively new log bridge with railings across the latter. A crew from WTA was erecting a sturdy flight of stairs on the bridge as we began. On one of my runs of the Devils Dome loop in the early 90s, there was no bridge and we had to ford Canyon Creek....impossible in these conditions, but that time it was in midsummer.

Sturdy bridge across Canyon Creek

First creek crossing is a baby, just a rock hop

The first mile of trail 738 has some minor brush, and there were 20 logs down on the trail as we hiked. If you hike this trail on a hot summer day, you will welcome the shade of the forest. For us, it was perfect temperature, and not one bug! The only challenge was crossing the raging outlet of tiny"Crater Pond" at about 5,000 feet. At first glance we feared that to cross it would be suicide. It was absolutely no place to lose one's feet, with lots of ice water moving very quickly to a series of falls just downstream ( see picture) from the crossing, a slip could prove fatal....really. I use the rule of 12 in stream crossing.....any combination of depth of water in feet multiplied by current speed in feet per second equaling 12 or more is enough to knock you off your feet. This exceeded 12. There were no suitable logs, but we were able to cross safely by using my 7.8 mm x 30 m backpacking rope to set up a belayed crossing. It was quite easy and very safe.

We heard the second creek long before we saw it and hoped we didn't have to cross it....wrong... This is about where a person would plummet if they goofed up on the crossing ( right).

Second creek crossing ( photo on our return) was scary enough for us to safeguard it. In this view the dropoff on the left is unseen.It is worse than this suggests, the kind where if you don't slip, what was the big deal? If you do slip, pick your poison: trauma, drowning, hypothermia, or combo.

The trail became lost in snow at about 5200' but we had little difficulty traversing along the general route of the Crater Mountain branch trail. We appeared to be the first hikers up there recently. With so much snow on main Crater, and me with a gimpy knee due to a weird fall while running 10 days earlier, we decided to abandon our initial plans and revert to Plan B. I was worried that my knee would betray me as we were doing the class 3 exposed rock and snow patches leading to the main summit. Another point in our decision was that I had climbed the main peak twice (30 years ago) to summit camps, and Katy and Craig hadn't been in this area at all. Craig spotted the branch trail leading to Point 7054 and we followed it for a couple of hundred yards until it too was lost in snow. Easy snow slopes...

Snow covers trail to Point 7054

... led to a spectacular broad ridge top with level, gravelly tent sites.

What a fantastic place to oo and aw at the views! The main summit has the advantage of views toward the Pickets, Baker and Shuksan, the Chilliwacks, and the Colonial group in addition to all we coild see, but a strong north wind and clouds over the summit would have obscured our view from the summit up there anyway until late evening, when it cleared. It looked really cold up there in the cloud and wind, so we were glad we chose Plan B. Maybe I'm getting soft as I approach " middle age, stage 2"

Crater Mountain

Black Peak

Still-frozen tarn below

Jack

Mesahchie and friends

Ballard and Azurite. We could see roughly a quarter of the highest 100.

Jack

Hi, Jack!

Katy likes her warm bag

Aw, breakfast!

Spam, breakfast of champions? (just ignore the ingredients)

yummy Spam, Spam, Spam Spam (apologies to Monty Python)

"You actually enjoy that?"

"Good morning, Jack! You look hard!"

Same to you, Crater! ( you aren't hard in summer 😁)

Ragged Ridge group

Buckner with its twin summits and Eldo with its distinctive snow crest. Edit: Roper pointed out that "Eldo" is actually Boston. The Sahale Glacier peaking over its left side fooled me. Thanks John!😊

northwest side of Ballard and the "North American snowfield"...see it? Oops, it's missing most of Canada and Alaska!

we were happy to have crampons for the hard morning snow

It dropped to sub-freezing at night but we arose to a calm morning in full sun. It was spectacular, one of those mountain mornings you remember for a long time! The site of the former lookout #2 is indicated by the usual bits of melted glass and nails, broken mortared rock, and a few fragments of burnt wood.. It is on a rocky bump 100 yards west of where we camped on the flat ridge crest. When we hiked out there was the WTA crew starting up to cut the 20 logs on the trail...they were working on #1.They asked how many were below the wilderness boundary and we said all but three or four. But they don't use chainsaws even outside the wilderness, we were told.

[GaliWalker]

Those are some really nice photos, and I enjoyed the write up too.

[awilsondc]

Great views from up there! Looks like I need to add this one to my to do list. Looks awesome! Well, except for the SPAM that is...

[Brushbuffalo]

Aaron, hike up the main peak and camp on top. Why spend all that effort to get there, only to leave in a bit? It is wonderful! There is a cornice for water until late July or so, too. Spam, of course, is optional. Spam or sausage...very little difference in ingredients IMO. Both are rather disgusting but taste so good!

[iron]

never trust roper on peak IDs. can't be trusted...

[wildernessed]

Nice pics. I think the sub freezing temps knocked down the bugs quite a bit.

[joker]

Nice! And luxury on that bridge what with handrails and all now!! We had a big dog who was not amused at being coaxed to cross the old flattened big log bridge with no sides over that rushing river. He finally did it but only by following me with his nose inches from my heels. Good dog - he was a sport for sure.