[sarbar]

Rainrunner, Marzsit, Ford and me headed up the North Fork Teenaway on saturday....and had fantastic weather for the most part-that cloudy and sunny, small breeze weather. We headed up the Esmeralda Basin Trail taking our time, till we got to the junction for the County Line Trail, where we headed up the trail (uhhuh.....proves my theory on the CLT....it is a trail in the old school way!) to the 6400ft overlook over Lake Anne. Errrrr...that teeny tiny tarnlet is about to disapear! It was very low. We decided to not camp at Lake Anne and kept going, we headed back thru the meadows till we rejoined the trail. Right after we filtered up water at the last stream crossing (and yes, while there is water on the trail, it is few and far this year-I noticed most of the streamlets were running very shallow-the North Fork Teenaway is walkable even......) We headed up to Fortune Pass, passed the two occupied campsites at the pass, and headed over. We dropped down the trail, thru the alpine forest till we came to a sweet ledge, next to a meadow. We set up camp there. We had a 360* view of everything, in the open..no wind, no bugs, no animals. Spent the evening staring at the vistas and reading a cheezy novel. Saw no one after we left the pass. Saw no trucks below on the Jeep roads. Woke up at 5:30 am to clear cold views On the trail by 8 am we headed down the trail till we met up with the 4X4 road to Gallagher Head Lake. Here we crossed a number of streamlets (including the very tiny headwaters of South Fork). Annnnddddd....... No matter what anyone says about Gallagher Head Lake-it is a lovely little lake. And in fine shape. We saw no garbage or litter at the lake, and only a tiny bit on the road (which I could have driven in my stock Explorer....) I am defintely going to bring my man back here in a week or two for some drivin' and car campin'...there are some very sweet campsites up there! After wandering the lake we encountered 5 minutes of drizzle, that stopped, as we turned onto the De Roux Trail for the hike back. The meadows were very nice on this section-very much in full bloom. The hop across the creek was three rocks and over. A great trail for kids, water crossing wise. The bridge over the second crossing is very nice. And that bridge over the North Fork at the end? Holy cow! Talk about super enginering You could drive on it! We wandered up to the campground, and went X/C to the main rd, then had a 1 1/2 mile walk back to the truck (weeeeee......) A nice overnighter-with fantastic views. Btw...exactly what peak is that visible from Fortune Pass? The one that is still holding a bunch of snow? I put a photo below of it... More photos: http://community.webshots.com/album/391585519IiVcIy

Ford at our campsite, looking towards Gallagher Head. Esmeralda Peaks on the far left.

Name me? In the early light of sunday morning.

GH Lake.

[JimK]

Mt. Daniel is front and center from Fortune Pass.

[sarbar]

Cool! That was what Marzsit thought it might be