[Magellan]

Short version: Ignore the story below, and find your way to the biggest gully just north of the eastern side of the lake. A raft would be your best approach from the trail that arrives at the south side of the lake.

Hurricane Peak

Apparently the word is out that the Tenas Creek road has been reopened. The seven vehicles (5 overnight) at the trailhead were about twice as many as my two previous visits combined. Needless to say, more arrived after EastKing and I started hiking. A huge 'Thank You!' to Bryan, George, and all the other people that fixed the first portion. It was pretty brutal, but is now wide open, with just a couple of muddy sections. The trail is beautiful. The first half has been cleared of downed trees, greatly speeding ascent. This 'boot path' is in better shape than many trails. The open meadows after the woods were ok, with not many flowers. Good path is followed all the way to the dry outlet on the south side of the lake.

Home

Waterfall pano

EK seal of approval

Upper Tenas Creek valley

Outlet of Boulder

Armed with multiple directions to various approaches, I knew we could not miss. As we circled the lake counterclockwise a cliffy section forced us up an easy gully. We exited on the left as soon as possible, arriving directly at the outlet of Pear Lake. Two more tents up there brought the days total to 7.

5 labels

Boulder Lake pano

We looked at a very wet gully just down from the outlet of Pear. Eventually we headed uplake, and turned up the first (wet) gully we saw. We were in an upper basin full of snow, granite, and heather. We angled right up the first gully we saw, only to arrive at an even higher basin. We now angled left over the same type of terrain, battling crumholz to top the ridge. As predicted, the east side of the ridge was quite gentle.

Typical hiking

My favorite

Future gully of descent, talus traverse around lake

We headed north walking shelves, and ratting a couple of moats. I was happy to have left the axe and spikes at home. The spire just south of Hurricane proper has an amazing south face. We worked our way to almost due east of the peak, and started a simple scramble. It was no harder than other hiking we did that day. Topping out two things became apparent. Treeline is going up, and the cloud level was coming down. We started enjoying everything from diffused sunshine to fog. The register showed only one party signing in since the washout in 2006. Just a minute later we heard thunder boom to the east, so we headed down.

Moody Glacier Peak

Lake Kawkawak

Lake Toketie

Pear Lake below Boulder Peak

Boulder Lake

Thrilled

Bacon, tomato, pepper, corn, no cheese pizza? WTH?

Lousy brownies

5 points of contact

Mmmmm, go down now?

Thunderous pano

At the col just east of the spire we spied the standard ascent/descent route. It looked easy, and down we went. It started green, but become rockier and looser as we went. A party should stick close together to avoid raining rocks on one another.

Green to silver

Looking up foggy gully

Eastking - Helmet? Hell yeah! Shirt? Hell no!

As we dropped we headed north to finish the counterclockwise navigation of the lake. A few trees, gullies, and more loose rock were enjoyed. The sun came out in full force just in time for a swim! This was when my camera battery died. The final navigation around the lake was almost completely loose. After enjoying the solid talus of the south and east shores, this was irritating. It would be easy to get hurt here. While waiting at the outlet I had to ask some fisherman to put out their fire before they left. Another talus descent, a stumble through the meadow, and a quick walk down the trail got us out. I counted 14 cars at the trailhead, and some from the morning were missing. 8+ miles R/T, 3600' gain, 8.5 hours car to car The low slung passenger car did not like the 6 or 7 big culvert dips on the upper section of road. Thanks to my mad driving skillz, the Mazdarati did not bottom out. If one were to take the most direct route, not wander around aimlessly, and remember to pick up the camera before leaving the rest stop, this round trip can be done in ~7 hours. I recommend reading Mike Collins report to get the most out of this area. If I ever go back I would likely do what he did.

[Backpacker Joe]

HEY, check it out. A trip report where we dont have to see the Kingster naked! Ya gotta like that.

[Hulksmash]

[mgd]

Nice!

[Tom]

Hmmm, are you saying you recommend your exit route over your entry route? Been up there a couple times and only gone in via Pear as it seems a little more sane.

[Backpacker Joe]

[Backpacker Joe]

[mgd]

The exit route for that pizza may be difficult.

[forest gnome]

great, hope more trash won't be left up there now that 6,000 +more people know about that area.... oops nevermind, 14 frigging cars at the trailhead? too late...

[Magellan]

[EastKing]

Awesome trip!!!! Thanks you Magellan for inviting me to this awesome peak. Here are the pictures...

Magellan takes a dip

DIving away

The Lake

The Gap

Boulder Lake

The Marmot

It is running away

THe gully

Often imitated, never duplicate

Cool EastKing

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The last scramble

Frozen Lake

VIews from near scramble

More views

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Pear Lake

Hurricane Peak

Waterfall to no creek?

Waterfall

Waterfall

Hurricane Peak shows itself

[Zukismom]

Those "brownies" look like ground up shale mixed with dead moss! Please tell me they did not taste quite like that! HA! (That Pizza didn't look too good either!) Time for a backpacking cooking class maybe? j/k

[EastKing]

The brownies were very tasty. I don't know about the pizza though. Here is my trip report on SummitPost: Hurricane Peak Trip Report

[Tom]

[NikonHiker]

I was up there on Friday giving the area a once over and people weren't exaggerating about the garbage. One might mistake it for a dump given that in the talus below the outflow of Boulder Lake I found a pair of sneakers. Where I turned up-hill towards Boulder Mountain I found an abandoned tent body. In the boulders along Boulder Lake I found a tank top shirt. Near the north end of Pear Lake I found an empty salmon egg jar, a plastic food container, some flip flops, some zip ties and even a plate in on the bottom of Pear Lake itself! Plus on the way down I came across a rather large group of overnighters with two dogs and nary a leash on hand. They did that thing I love which was when their critter charged me snarling and barking the one guy shouted, 'It won't bite you! It won't bite you!' However for all my complaining it's still a great trip!