[Matt]

Party: Matt, mtnmike, (plus a surprise guest and dog) Itinerary: Day 1: Hike Meadow Mtn trail to base of Meadow Mtn. Side trip to Meadow Mtn. Camp at headwater basin of Owl Creek. Day 2: Continue trail to Fire Mountain. Carry over Fire Mtn true summit. Traverse to meet PCT at col above Mica Lake. Camp at Mica Lake. Day 3: Lime Ridge High Route to Lime, Milk, & Twin Lakes. Side trip to Lime Ridge Point 6662. Camp at Lower Twin Lake. Day 4: Lime Ridge High Route to Rivord Lake, Lake 5698, & Upper Box Mtn Lake. Side trips to Lime & Box Mtns. Go over Point 6409. Descend basin northwest to camp at Lake 5108. Day 5: Descend ridge northwest to switchbacks of Lime Creek Road. Hike South Suiattle Road to car at Circle Creek.

Our route goes across the back side of Meadow, Fire & Lime Mountains

Route Track (courtesy of mtnmike)

I'll fill in the report later this week, but a friend has requested to see some of the photos sooner, so here they are: The Lakes:

Emerald Lake

Fire Mtn Lake

Mica Lake from above

Mica Lake

Lime Lake

Junction Tarn

Milk Lakes from above

Lower Milk

Upper Milk

Lower Twin Lake

Lower Twin Lake Sunrise

Rivord Lake

Rivord Lake from above

Lake 5698

Upper Box Mtn Lake

Box Mtn Lakes from Box Mtn

Lake 5108

Lower Box Mtn Lake, Lake 5698 & Rivord Lake from Lime Mountain

Day 1: Meadow Mtn trail & Meadow Mtn Meadow Mtn TH to base of Meadow Mtn We made a car shuttle to place one car where the South Suiattle Road ends at Circle Creek, then drove over Rat Trap Pass to the Meadow Mountain trailhead. We hiked the trail to the base of Meadow Mountain, at the headwaters of Owl Creek. The first five miles of the trial is actually the old road, abandoned at least 25 years ago. The further parts of the trail opened into some fine meadows.

"Trail" that's actually a road (plus grouse)

Meadows!

Flowers!

Food!

Mountain!

Meadow Mountain 6324 Meadow Mountain turned out to be a bit of a steep scramble just below the top, but still 3rd class if you look carefully for where to climb. It provided a fine view down toward Emerald lake and way out along the ridges of Meadow, Fire & Lime Mountains, but clouds were hiding the tops of all the higher peaks in the area.

Meadow Mtn summit

Steep scramble just below the summit

Mike on Meadow Mtn (with more Meadow Mtn & Fire Mtn behind)

Matt on Meadow Mtn (with Lime Ridge behind)

Emerald Lake & Lime Ridge

Meadow Mountain Camp It was getting late in the afternoon, and we weren't sure how far it would be to the next water, so we made camp nearby at the Owl Creek headwaters basin. The best camps were on a knoll between above the eastern fork of the stream. Scattered around the crest of the knoll were so many flat grassy patches that you could probably lay out an 8-hole course of putting greens.

Pika near our packs

The putting greens of Owl Creek basin

A very green evening

Day 1 stats: Drive & car shuttle: 2:40 hours With packs: 10.2 miles, 3904 gain, 881 loss, 6:30 hours Meadow Mtn side trip: 1.62 miles, 890 gain, 2:00 hours Route Notes: The road was bikable to its end. There was water at about mile 4.5 on the road. If the previous evening hadn't been rainy, it would have made a good head start for the trip. Day 2: Meadow Mtn to Fire Mtn to Mica Lake Meadow Mountain to Fire Mountain The remainder of Meadow Mountain became very meadowy. Under overcast skies, it was a green green world. About 2 miles past our camp, the trail climbed up onto the crest near Point 6023. On the opposite (north) side was a side trail leading down a broad bench toward Diamond Lake. Far below on the south side, the Whitechuck River wound its lonely way past the road and trail that it had destroyed.

Meadow hiking

The bench back to Diamond Lake

A bit of blue sky appears

Whitechuck River far below

The meadows provided flowers to delight the eyes and fruit to delight the tongue. The flowers and berries were at all different stages of ripeness, probably based on how recently they had melted out of the snow. I saw lupine ranging from bright flowers to finished seed pods, and blueberries ranging from tiny green ones to bright blue ones. There were some flowers that appeared to be a type of paintbrush, but had an unusual pale yellow color with a rosy core, which I havent' seen before. Did I mention that the meadows were very green?

Lupine & bistort

Fireweed & columbine

Paintbrush?

Berries

Green, green, green, with a bit of blue & white

Fire Mountain 6702 To reach Fire Mountain, we departed the trail when it had dropped to about 5300 feet, and then followed the crest upward to the lower, named summit.

The ridge running up to False Fire

Mike looking from False Fire toward True Fire

Clouds were rapidly closing off our views, but there was a fine surprise on the back side of the summit, a bright jade colored lake nestled in the glacier carved rock, plus another mostly snow-covered lake higher up.

Me on False Fire with Fire Mtn Lakes

Clouds lift for a view of Lime Ridge

We continued along the crest to the true summit at 6702. Clouds completely covered the summit, but very briefly provided a glimpse of a third, snow-covered lake below.

Mike traveling the crest between False & True Fire

Brief glimpse of another lake in the basin north of True Fire

Fire Mountain to Mica Col Now we needed to get to the PCT above Mica Lake. We angled down staying a couple hundred feet below the crest of Fire's southeast ridge, in order to get past the sharp outcrop that blocks the ridge midway, and then came up onto the ridge crest at the col before Point 6326. The final meadow was very steep, and my worn out boot edges were slipping, so I barely made it up by stabbing in my ice axe pick with one hand and grabbing grass and heather with the other hand.

The outcrop blocking the ridge to Fire Creek Pass

Decorated rocks

Three Marmots in the Rocks

PCT to Mica Lake Mica Lake was a blue gem below, with Grassy Point a green crest across from us. After all the steep side-hilling, my feet were very relieved to walk on flat trail bed down to the lake.

Mica Lake

PCT descending to Mica Lake

Tarn above Mica Lake

Evening at Mica Lake We were surprised that no through-hikers came through while we were camped at Mica. It was getting late in the day, but a quick swim felt great for rinsing off the trail grime. After dark, moonlight lit the clouds above and below us.

Camp at Mica Lake

Swimming with the fishes

Moonlit clouds above and below us

Day 2 Stats: 10 miles, 3460 gain, 3310 loss, 10:30 hours (includes 1:45 on summits) Route Notes: On the east half of the Meadow Mtn trail, there was water for camping on the bench leading down to Diamond Lake and at the stream with elevation marker 5344 on the map. For the Fire Mountain High Route, Tabor & Crowder recommend traversing below the peak circa 5500 feet and coming up to the PCT col from directly below, which would have avoided the steep meadows, but missed the summits. They also mention that there are camps on benches in the basin.

[Backpacker Joe]

Matt youre an animal. What a fantastic trip.

[contour5]

Nice pictures, Matt. I've been looking at this area; looking forward to the rest of the report!

[Yana]

Wowza! Among others, the photo of Fire Mountain Lake is amazing!

[chiwakum]

Your exit ridge route is interesting. I have been considering some variants accessed from FS road 25 using ridges east of your route. This could be a good option after they close FS 26 for construction.

[Schroder]

great trip

[Magellan]

Love it! Can't wait for details, Matt.

[puzzlr]

Such rich colors in the photos. Waiting for more ...

[raising3hikers]

Nice

[hikapath]

wow--favorite place wish I could still get there--by the way there are two Rivord lakes--the highest lake under Lime Mt is upper Rivord--Bill would probably would not make too big an issue--

[hikapath]

As for the name of the upper lake--go to Tabor and Crowder--probably not official but does have history. Second go to the Lakes of Western Washington published by the state--lots of confirmation in there. I have noticed that some recent maps do not label Upper Rivord, and I do find that a bit disturbing. I consider it lack of research on recent creators of these maps--not the first time. Inspiration--good grief that is the same name they have now hung on Talisman in the Enchantments--wonder if it is the same person. Bill was a pretty inspiring person that did a lot for the wilderness there--the decision to name the lakes for him (technically for his father since he was still alive at the time) should not be cast off on a whim or lack of research.--sorry about the rant. By the way those are great photos, bring back some really great memories--would really love to go back there again--thank you from an old man.

[Matt]

For now, I'm going to stay with the neutral reference to Lake 5698, just using it's elevation number. I have seen maps with Indigo Lake, but that's clearly wrong, because there's another Indigo Lake named on USGS maps near Circle Peak. I can see "Upper Rivord" as a possibility, since it's drainage stream merges with Rivord. However, Tabor & Crowder don't name it, even though they refer to all of the other lakes by name. They refer to it as "the lake close below Lime Mountain." The also refer to the route as the "Rivord Lake High Route," with Rivord lake singular, not plural, so I don't think they intended to apply the "Rivord" name to the 5698-foot lake. Of course, anyone can personally use whatever name they like.

[Matt]

Something for the fishermen:

[KarlK]

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Beautiful. Thanks for the report, Matt.