Forum Index > Trip Reports > Spider Gap, Lyman Lake, Image Lake, Miners Ridge (9/11-18/20
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contour5
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contour5
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 10:26 am 
I car camped on the lower Chiwawa, waiting out a little weather ("possible showers"). There were a lot of lightning strikes all around the Chikamin road. In the morning, the radio said 50 confirmed fires; mostly over near Wenatchee. I car camped a couple more nights, but didn't hear much more about the fires. So, I drove up to Phelps Creek and started walking. The High Hunt was due to start in a couple of days, so I had my orange hat, but I met only 3 hiker couples on the way to Spider Meadows; each with their own unleashed dog. There was nobody at the meadow. Conditions were amazing- sunny but cool, with a perfect breeze, and no bugs. There were a few gnat-like things, but no mosquitos or flies at all.
Nobody in the meadow
Nobody at the knob I camped at Larch Knob, with nobody else around. It was windy and cold. In the morning I walked up over the gap. wind was howling there- I hurried over the top and dropped down toward the Lyman Lakes, where the wind dropped off and it quickly warmed up. The snow was a bit harder and slipperier on the north side- the sun cups had been rained off, maybe.
Upper Lyman
Upper Lyman2 I climbed a little hill in the upper basin and then went over to the waterfall that leads down to the lower lake.
Upper Lyman Basin
Lyman Falls The trail next to the falls is damaged and under restoration- lots of slippery mud. Better to take the bootpath down next to the talus/mossy boulders. The view of Lyman Lake from the falls area never fails to thrill me.
Lyman Lake
Lyman Lake2
Lyman Lake3 The south/west side of the lake is an enormous meadowy parkland full of good things.
Lyman Pond
Lyman Beach
Red
Northstar There were a few bugs, but not enough to bother with repellant until I got to Cloudy Pass. It was surprisingly warm all night on the pass. Lots of wispy clouds trailing overhead made for a nice sunset. Smoke from the fires was backing up valleys from the east, but it never quite reached me during this walk. None of the hikers I spoke to knew anything at all about the fires- and I asked everybody I saw.
Cloudy Sunset Found a great camping spot in a meadow a little way up the ridge toward Cloudy. The next morning 3 deer came charging into my camp at sunrise- seconds after I had peed a few steps from my tent. First two does went head to head, scratching and sniffing and ripping out plants and sucking up wet dust. Then the crazy-eyed buck ran them off- stomping and snorting and bluff-charging them until they backed off, but they kept coming back, resulting in several minutes of hijinx and antics of a really raw, wild nature.
High Buck? This guy's wasted. The deer were totally unconcerned with me, but the buck kept looking back down the hill from where they had come. Suddenly he looked up one last time and they just bolted, leaving me to wonder what predator lurked nearby. I had seen bear and cat tracks on the deer highway around Lyman Lake...
Meadows at Cloudy Pass
Looking back to Lyman and Spider Gap
Plummer Mtn
Smoke rolling up Agnes Creek
Miners Ridge
Glacier Peak
Miners Ridge Lookout
I camped at the lookout. There was nobody around, so I just put my tent on the only flat space- right at the foot of the stairs. Sat up on the deck and counted shooting stars and UFOs well into the night... cool place...
Image Lake
From the lookout, I made my way back toward the lake, then climbed up to the pass in the ridge where the trail goes through to Canyon Lake. From here I walked along the top of the ridge all the way to the shoulder of Plummer Mtn. I climbed the little point overlooking Ladies Camp, but didn't cross over to the main summit. The little one was easy, and good enough for me...
Along the ridge toward Plummer
Back to Image Lake for a photo-op
Marmot1
Marmot2
An amazing Sunset...
On the trail above Image Lake I met a ranger, who turned out to be George Winters- a well-known contributor to NWH. (Check out George's excellent and informative glacier comparison study: Glacier Comparison Study) George was manning the lookout, rangering the high hunt and collecting gps co-ordinates along the trails. He helped me with route info and even penciled in a couple of seekrit routes onto my map.
Ranger Geo on the trail All in all, a perfect trip. Didn't get the magic reflection photo of Image Lake, but I'm not certain you can, anymore. The trees have grown in...
The high hunt turned out to be no trouble at all. Lots of hunters around Miners Ridge and Suiattle Pass, but I never actually heard any firing. Everybody was super friendly, and the horsemen at Ladies Camp provided me with weather news from their radio. Lots of thru hikers out on the trail. Image Lake may be over-rated, but it's a pretty stunning location, nonetheless. The route itself is spectacular trail walking; one is well rewarded for the effort expended. I decided not to loop out via Buck Creek because I didn't have enough time (supplies) to make the various side trips that make that route worthwhile. I'll need at least a week for that trip. Returning via Lyman Lake and Spider Gap also allowed me to avoid the dreaded road walk. I didn't see anybody from Cloudy Pass until I reached lower Phelps Creek- the trail had been closed for several days. Looks like perfect conditions out there right now...

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iron
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 11:38 am 
contour5 wrote:
^ money shot! i don't think image lake is overrated. i think it's quite spectacular. thanks for all the pictures and the work it took to compile the panos!

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Skookum Bill
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 1:48 pm 
Great photos and trip summary. About the photos: what kind of camera and were some of those images panoramas?

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contour5
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 9:28 pm 
Nikon Coolpix 10 mp. Almost all the photos are stitched panos. I like making them. I only shot ~1020 pictures on this trip- forgot to take extra memory cards... I use photoshop to adjust levels, brightness, contrast, etc. Lately I'm using a plug-in called Topaz Adjust for its "exposure correction" tool. Sometimes the "photo pop" tool, as well, although it's a bit severe and usually requires dialing back the saturation afterwards.

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Magellan
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 10:51 pm 
iron wrote:
contour5 wrote:
^ money shot!
Definitely not overated. Thanks for sharing. up.gif Those rangers know all the secret routes...

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contour5
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contour5
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PostThu Sep 20, 2012 11:51 pm 
Quote:
Those rangers know all the secret routes...
Indeed. I was checking out the Esruoc Flog on my map before I ran into Ranger George, but I didn't even know it had a name, much less a secret boot-path to the ponds...

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ree
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ree
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PostFri Sep 21, 2012 9:36 am 
Beautiful pictures... they have an ethereal quality. Miners Ridge is on my list. I love that view of Lyman Lakes.

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D. Inscho
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PostFri Sep 21, 2012 9:39 am 
Good stuff contour! You do some photographic heavy-lifting with that flyweight camera. Image lake suffers from a historical hype that may fall a little flat to visitors (especially with the scripted campspots). I felt that way on my visit 11 or so years ago. So many other spectacular and lonesome places to consort with in the cascades!

http://david-inscho.smugmug.com/ The key to a successful trip is to do the planning during work hours. -- John Muir “My most memorable hikes can be classified as 'Shortcuts that Backfired'.” --Ed Abbey
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cascadedy
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PostFri Sep 21, 2012 7:50 pm 
Excellent pics - very impressed!

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Schryder
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PostSat Sep 22, 2012 1:56 am 
Beautiful panoramas!

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trailtrasch
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PostSat Sep 22, 2012 9:47 am 
STELLAR. you are one lucky ducky:D you say a trail is closed? i plan to do this trip next weekend. VERY excited.

LIVE WILD!!!
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AlpineRose
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PostSat Sep 22, 2012 7:33 pm 
trailtrasch wrote:
STELLAR. you are one lucky ducky:D you say a trail is closed? i plan to do this trip next weekend. VERY excited.
Not a trail. All trails off the Chiwawa River Road are currently inaccessible, because the road is under wildfire closure. Access to the area is still possible via Holden, or the Suiattle. Expect smoke and minimal views under the right weather conditions.

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