[b00]

cameron+moose+moose 8-4 - 8-6-2017

lake lillian, mccartney left

smoke! no views, bugs, rugged terrain, beautiful flowers and meadows, nice lake, summits, great companions, fun trip :>) crazy logistics issues. pj and i planned on hiking in a day early to lake lillian and then do mt cameron and then meet carla and matt back at camp at lake lillian. when pj and i went to get our permits on friday, we were told the permits for lake lillian were gone :<( we got backcountry permits for where we could and called matt to coordinate a new plan(which did not work in the way we outlined). we hiked up to lake lillian, which had a lot more route-finding required than one would expect and was moderately strenuous off-trail travel. no one was at the lake. i wanted to stay there and figured whoever had the permit did not make it, as it was too difficult for the average hiker. they only allow one permit per night for the lake probably because they are worried that they would have to do too many rescues. but at ~7pm we headed up and over the west shoulder of mccartney, with leaky platypus's to add to our pleasure, and camped sw of mccartney. from camp sw of mccartney, we followed an abandoned trail and when it petered out, tried to figure our way from trip reports we had read and reading the terrain in front of us. on the way over, listening to the t/r's we stayed too high. we corrected that error on the way back. the terrain was rugged and there was a lot of side-hilling. pj called it tedious. whatever. for pj and i, cameron was like a person who is not from finland. we had been to cameron pass a couple years ago on an 7 day trip, but did not have enough time to do cameron :<( so this was un-finish'd business. smoke, side-hilling and whatnot, did not matter, reaching the summit was not a question. it would have been nice to have some views, but we were both satisfied.

the crux moves on cameron summit block

now we had to worry about how to connect up with carla and matt. we headed back and i was struck by a problem with my toe that really slowed me down. pj, ever patient, hung with me and we persevered back to where we left our camp gear sw of mccartney. fortunately on the way back pj found a much easier way lower than when we had traversed over. our plan was to meet matt and carla on the ridge west of and above lake lillian. there was no way i would be able to do that and told pj i would camp at lake lillian. i asked him to take the tent and stove(they were planning on sharing my stove with us) and bring it to matt and carla above the lake and i would do without and camp at lake lillian, as i was barely limping along. he was not exactly enamored with my idea of him going up there. when we reached the w shoulder of mccartney, we saw a tent pitched at the lake. pj took a zoomed in picture and sure enough it was matt's model of tent. pj took off his pack and headed up to the summit(i had already done it previously and i was no shape to do it even if i wanted to), while i headed down the glacier to the lake. just as i started down, i heard carla's call from high west and above lake lillian. she and matt were heading up there to find us. i called back and the relieved pair began to quickly descend down to the lake. they, like us, wanted to camp at lake lillian. when i reached them at the lake, they told me the story of running into the permit holder who had given up on getting to lake lillian, as he had went to the entire wrong basin, encountered rugged terrain and was very dismayed. he told matt and carla they could have his permit. we had a nice night of visiting, swapping stories and swatting bugs. it is always fun to be with friends! ps - pj had some entertainment watching me struggle with the lillian river crossing. pj found a wet log that we both crawled and sprawled across. i unfortunately got one of my trekking poles caught in the log and had to humorously battle with while trying not to fall in. on the way back, i just suffered the bugs while i changed to my creek crossing shoes and forded the lillian. the way over was funny for pj, the way back was miserable, while he waited for me futzing with changing shoes, while he battled the bugs :<( pps - stopped at portage bay and had a very nice visit with erin. ferry info said 2 hour wait, but we were not waiting that long at all. caught the 5:30 ferry and then had a fun visit with eric. got to hear about his cool pickets trip last week. sahale showed us some cartwheels and other gymnastic tricks. said hi to rose and one of his boys (was it jayden or ryan?) too. back home well before 7pm. quick and dirty route info: drive toward hurricane ridge lodge, turn off and take obstruction point road to its end. hike south on the main trail to the south shoulder of 6586, take way trail south to follow or go along side the ridge. eventually the trail peters out on the ridge between points 6580 and 6585. take climber's left class 2 gully down. traverse the east side of 6585 and ascended to moose's north ridge to its summit, descend south ridge to low pass. follow trail and cairns south to 5580' and then follow trail remnants and logic sw down to cross the lillian river. head generally w .5mi and then ascend wsw to the 5100' basin, getting to the basin at the outlet stream. from the basin, the many obvious routes are available, we took the gully between the two lake lillians. a couple of camps near n end of upper lake. ascend glacier to col on w shoulder of mccartney and follow trail that traverse the west side of mccartney. eventually the trail peters out. running water at tarn above pt 5651. no need to ascend pt 6450,(traverse at ~6300), keep generally level traversing over to cameron pass, then take ridge to summit, dropping below on s side when needed. more strenuous than the mileage and gain would imply.

basin below lake lillian, mccartney above

cameron pass

quote from matt: phloxy

near moose mt

5:30 car to lake lillian (2:02 car to moose, 0:27 summit stay, 0:32 moose to low pass, 2:28 low pass to lake lillian) 1:11 check out lake and get water 0:46 lake lillian to camp sw of mccartney 7:27 day one total 7.35mi 2466' gain 4:39 camp sw of mccartney to mt cameron (including 1:50 cameron pass to summit of mt cameron) 0:41 summit stay 4:38 mt cameron to camp sw of mccartney 0:28 pick up camp gear 0:42 camp sw of mccartney to lake lillian 11:08 day two total 9.61mi 2553' gain 5:57 lake lillian to car (2:26 lake lillian to low pass, 1:00 low pass to moose, 0:14 summit stay, 2:16 moose to car) day three total 6.37mi 2352' gain total 23.33mi 7371' gain equipment: bear can, ice axe, (no sleeping bag), bug juice, headnet, creek crossing shoes equipment brought, but not used: crampons

[silence]

Love it! Sorry about your foot. Funny, I just this spring went back to some of my old jpegs from our trip in July, 2005, cleaned them up a bit and reposted them. It was both a fun and challenging traverse ... though unlike you guys, we dropped in from Low Pass, went on to Lost basin for 2 nights, then back to Cameron Pass and over Grand Pass to Gladys Lake where our first camp was. BTW ... no glacier on that side of McCartney .... the Lillian glacier (sadly gone now) was on the other side feeding Lillian Creek.

[Stefan]

nice! sorry about the toes. like your smoke pictures.

[Matt]

Well, darn, I lost my bet on what part of Brett would be limping this week. Last week it was his calf, and earlier it was his knee, so I was figuring on ankle this time, but he skipped ahead to toe.

[raising3hikers]

nice TR, glad everything went well good to see you and pj even though it was in my driveway:)