[Sadie's Driver]

Well, like everyone else in the Northwest, we decided THIS was the weekend to get out of town and enjoy an absolutely gorgeous September weekend. Two-Dog-Dad had wanted to leave on Thursday, but Middle E, the Driver and Gus couldn't leave until Friday - and it was 3:30 p.m. at that, and the roads already were jammed with "happy" travelers. Our destination was to be Maude - with maybe something else thrown in. We decided to get a jump start on the hordes and it was a good thing we did. We managed to make it to the Phelps Creek trailhead by 6:30 p.m. and were on the trail by 6:45 p.m. - but daylight was quickly waning. There were maybe 15 or so cars in the parking area (didn't see Nikolai's car - but then, we didn't look carefully either - he did sign in on the register, however.)

At trailhead

Signing in around 6:45 p.m.

We decided to get as far as we could to Leroy Creek - and found a nice little camp spot a little less than a mile away. We saw some "creatures" as we fixed our dinner.

Night creature lurking near the tent

Night creature

In an attempt to enrich and expand Barry's cultural exposure, I read several intellectual passages from the latest (Matt Damon issue) Esquire. He seemed less than impressed, so off went the Petzel to catch some Daylight was a little delayed as we were in the shadows of the peaks and ridges to the east of our camp - but we were pretty much packed up and ready to go before 8:00 a.m. - someone was really ready to go.

I've got a stick . . . want to play?

As we were getting ready, a day-hiker passed by about 7:30 a.m. saying that he was headed to Maude. I cheerily said, "We'll see you up there," but he looked like he would be well ahead of us. Soon we were on our way, reaching Leroy Creek and the turn immediately after crossing the creek that would take us UPHILL along the creek. Right at the beginning, there was a warning about wildfires in Leroy Basin - but, it wasn't very helpful, since it wasn't dated!

Heading up Leroy Basin trail - fire warning

Leroy Creek was a lot lower than it was a month ago when we were in the area heading up to Spider Gap/Cloudy Pass.

Very low Leroy Creek

The trail wastes no time climbing - it certainly doesn't meet the 10% grade standard!

No kidding!

It's a steep 1200' climb, then it levels briefly (maybe 100 yards!) and starts back up for the final 600' climb to Leroy Basin. Just below the basin, we met a family of four who were just rising - they said that they, too, were headed for Maude today! (Most of those who had signed in were headed to Spider Meadows - so we didn't expect to see a whole lot of folks on our way.) Soon we were approaching Leroy Basin.

Coming up on Leroy Basin with 7-Finger behind

Blowdown on the way to Leroy Basin

Leroy Basin with 7-Finger in the background (looking east)

Once you're in the basin, you'll want to head to the south/southeast. There's a good boot path - but when you cross the rocks, the trail becomes less obvious, but there are cairns to make the way. If you look up to the ridge and see a "notch" to the Southeast of Maude - that's what you want to aim for. Peggy Goldman (who we brought along for the ride - in book form, at least) talks about heading up well before the notch - but it looks like a whole lot more work than is necessary, when there is a perfectly good trail all the way up to Maude's south ridge shoulder. As we were crossing some of the scree, who should we see but the dayhiker who had earlier passed our campsite - apparently, he had taken a wrong turn and consulted with us on what his route should be - he had a postcard-sized map that looked next to useless that he had copied off of the net. It was right about at this point that we came across the steep, deep ravine that you have to go down and back up - I recommend going a little farther down (to the west - you can see a cairn), but the dayhiker stayed high and had to scramble a lot - not appealing with a full pack.

Looking for a good spot to climb up

Ravine scramble

Scrambling up the ravine

Barry, Gus and I opted to cross at a little less steep location.

Barry and Gus scrambling up the ravine

Deep Ravine

The dayhiker continued on heading to the notch. We were a little slower behind. From Leroy Basin, you have to climb another 1600' to reach the notch (at 7600'). It's fairly steep - but nothing difficult. We were planning to stay at Ice Lake - which is 400' below the ridge/notch on the "other" (or east) side. That also would add elevation to our climb of Maude a little later. As we were heading to the notch, we started to get some glimpse of Glacier.

Glacier Peak Peeking

When we reached the ridge, Glacier was in full view - along with these other two summits - no clue what they are!

Glacier full-on

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??? (looking more southwest from summit of Maude)

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??? (looking west from summit of Maude)

But, the best part was the view of Ice Lake from the ridge and Maude.

Ice Lake - looking East from the ridge

Maude from the ridge

We descended down to the lake, set up our camp on a lovely little bench with a view of the lake and the surrounding peaks.

Tent site at Ice Lake

We grabbed lunch and then headed up Maude. It's about 1800' from Ice Lake to the summit of Maude - about midway up, we ran into the dayhiker on his way down from Maude (when we saw the summit register, we would see that his name was "Jerry" - he had an accent - not sure exactly what - German perhaps?) I took his picture with his camera and said that I would get a pic of him to post on NW Hikers.

Jerry the hiker with Ice Lake behind

(Didn't find out whether or not he was "available." Guess I should be more attentive! ) Anyway, on up we headed to the summit of Maude - it's an "easy" - albeit steep - hike to the summit - nothing difficult. The views are awesome! And, we had the summit to ourselves!

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Lots of mountains yet to climb; 09-13-09

Looking North/Northeast from Summit of Maude

Glacier from Summit of Maude

Baker and Shuksan and everything in between from summit of Maude

Looking east from summit of Maude

Smaller Ice Lake from atop of Maude

Ice Lake looking East from Maude

Barry on the summit (looking north)

The Driver and Gus on the top of Maude (looking west)

After a half-hour or more on the summit, down we headed. Just as we were leaving, two guys were about to summit.

Interpid hikers reaching Maude

Then, as we got down to about 8400', we ran across the family of four that we had seen earlier in the morning just below Leroy Basin.

Family four below Maude summit

There's a nice little "bench" at 8200'

8200' shelf below the summit of Maude

and from there it was an easy walk back to camp. We did see a couple who had a dog. They were camping at Ice Lake, too, but we never did see their campsite. They were just heading up to Maude and it was 4:30 p.m. Our campsite came complete with a nice little eating/dining/windbreak area.

Kitchen work . . .

As we fixed dinner, someone was about to nod off.

Tuckerd out . . .

Even though we were in an open, high area, the sun still was dropping by 8:15 p.m.

Last sun on Spectacle Butte

Twilight at Ice Lake

Saturday night was warm, still and a fabulous star display. Much different than the trip David and Yumi had made a year ago! The next morning, the early morning (6:00 a.m.) was spectacular.

Maude in the morning light

While Barry waited for me to finish getting ready, he looked to be doing a puzzle or something (he says he was writing directions to 7-Finger! )

Sodoku

Soon, we were on our way back up to the ridge, with one last look to Ice Lake.

Ice Lake early morning

From the ridge, we took in the early morning light on Rainier and Glacier - with skies a lot less hazy than they were yesterday.

Early morning Rainier

Early morning Glacier

Dropping off the ridge, it's a bit steep, but easy enough to negotiate.

Heading down off the ridge

AND, all you Larch Lurkers, colors are beginning to change.

Can Fall be far behind???

One thing that we noticed was all of the pumice in the area. OK GeoTom - earn your keep! I want to know where this came from and when!!!

A bunch of pumice

Three samples

Just before we reached the steep ravine, we ran across two guys who had camped in Leroy Basin and were going to do a dayhike of Maude. They had attempted Fernow yesterday, but disliked all of the scree.

Morning greeting

On the way to Maude

When we reached about 6500' we debated going up 7-Finger. The weather was so spectacular. But, I worried that with Gus along, he would let loose too much scree on us and neither of us had helmets, so we decided to go back down and catch Carne on our way out. The Leroy Creek trail hadn't leveled out any on the way down, but at least it's reasonable dirt and duff - not crappy rocks and roots. It actually was quite warm on our descent - in fact, "someone" decided that he needed to cool down a little.

Gus chillin' in Leroy Creek

As we were merrily skipping down the trail toward Carne, who should we happen upon??? Two Dog Dad and two dogs!

Two-Dog-Dad and the boys

Apparently poor Nikolai had a less than satisfying trip to the mountains this weekend. On his way to Dumbbell/Greenwood he found that it was a bit too rough for the dogs and Doxie wound up lame. So, Nikolai spent all of Saturday in camp nursing the dogs. When we saw him Sunday morning, Doxie was still limping a bit. We parted company at the Carne trailhead

Heading to Carne

and we started up, dropping our packs a bit up the trail. However, the Driver's eyes were more ambitious than her feet! We got up the trail a little more than 1000' and decided to call it quits. Enough fun for one weekend (plus it was getting very warm). So, a fabulous weekend. We agreed that if we were to come back to do 7-Finger, we would camp in Leroy Basin and start from there. Maude is a noble lady - the only female in the top 100 and sitting at a lofty #15 on Bulger's list. Our stats for the weekend: approx. 18 miles and 7,000'. When we got back to the car - there must have been 50+ cars (as many as or more than when we had been there a month ago!) Back to Seattle by 4:00 p.m.

[Magellan]

Nice stuff SD. Love the kitchen above Ice Lakes.

[GeoTom]

Nice trip. Jasper says "woof, woof, bark" to Gus, which roughly translates to, "It's about time you got up Mt. Maude, Surfer Boy!"

[Backpacker Joe]

Bugger, didnt you guys go to the lower lake? That's the best one.....

[TrailPair]

We really enjoyed our Maude trip a few years ago, and also 7 Fingered Jack, which we did in larch season. You were smart to pass on that one without helmets! It is a really fun scramble, though!

[Sadie's Driver]

[Jasper]

[Middle E]

We were fortunate to have had such amazing weather, far different from the wind and cold that Opus had described for us. We were a little puzzled as to the route to Maude described (as best we could tell) in Goldman's book. I suppose it's not impossible, but judging by the votes on foot, it's not a very common or easy way to the summit.

Goldman route?

A few more pictures...

Maude - 7F Jack saddle from Leroy Basin

Toward Spider Gap

Leroy Basin

Ice Lake from saddle

Maude from saddle

Last bit to Maude

Ice Lake from Maude

Baker and Shuksan from Maude

Suzanne and Spectacle Buttes

There was a western grebe swimming lonesomely on Ice Lake on Saturday evening. On Sunday monring, I saw a large falcon, possibly a peregrine, flying near Ice Lake,, but I was unable to get binoculars on it quickly enough to confirm. As Suzanne noted, it was very tempting to head up 7 Fingered Jack on Sunday morning.

Morning light on Maude

7 Fingered Jack in morning shadow

Both Nikolai, and a group we met coming down the Carne Mtn. trail, mentioned a route from above Leroy Basin to Carne that avoids the 2000' descent that we took. I had wondered why David mentioned "the loop out via Carne", as it seemed that just climbing Carne via the regular trail wasn't really a "loop". Apparently everyone and their aunt knows of this other route, but we had read nothing about it! Maybe next time....

[JimK]

Barry, you didn't consult my website for a report on the Carne Mountain High Route. You would have enjoyed it much more than the route back down via Leroy Basin.

[Bloated Chipmunk]

Thanks for the info - we are planning on doing this one soon!

[Backpacker Joe]

[Trevor]

Ha! I arrived at the trail head right when two-dog dad was leaving for his trip up dumbbell. He's one of the few people of several dozen that I've asked on the trail this year that have actually been affiliated with nwhikers/wta. Lots of glowing eyes meandering through spider meadows when I arrived at dark. Though more than likely deer, the imagination can't rest easily on a still evening in the tent. Glad you enjoyed the trip. Thanks for getting pictures on the east side.

[Middle E]

[wamtngal]

I that area! When I saw the photo of the fire notice, I fretted that Leroy Basin would no longer be it's magical place (not to mention losing all of those towering old larches!) -- glad to see it is still the same. Did you notice where the fire(s) were? Just Todd and I need to head back for 7FJ as well...nice to have a good excuse to return! And I'd like to do the Carne HR next time too.

[Snowdog]

glad you bagged Maude- I know it's been on your list for a while. Did you think of poor Rob being oh so sick a few weeks back on the Leroy creek trail? And the high route to Carne is actually penciled in on my map, I would have been happy to make you a copy.