[rubywrangler]

The forecast was showing a couple of perfect days ahead of this week's storm, so Ruby dog and I snuck out for one last larch march on Sunday and Monday. In spite of my best effort to get an early start, we got moving from the Hatchery Creek trailhead around 11:30am (note: best to check if oven is off before driving 15 miles ). It was neat to hike through different stages of regeneration from the past fires here. First scrubby switchbacks, then everything charred with absolutely no visible signs of life, then what seemed to be an older burn with silver snags and small trees. You would probably roast in the summer but it was perfect for this fall day.

brushy burn

peek-a-boo view from the dead zone

grasses and ground covers returning

baby trees

There was intermittent snow on the trail above ~4800', up to a few inches deep (i.e. enough to soak my feet and make me regret leaving waterproof boots in the car but not enough to hinder travel). The trail climbs up and over the ridge, then down into the Cabin Creek basin which was full of golden goodness.

looking down on cabin creek basin

closer view

cabin creek basin

The wind was completely calm all day but picked up as soon as we crested the ridge. I had read about the notorious Augusta winds and considered camping in the creek basin but since we still had a few hours of daylight, I decided to head to the lake first and backtrack if necessary. We arrived at Lake Augusta a little before 4 pm and had it all to ourselves. Aside from an occasional gust the wind wasn't bad so I set up camp east of the lake and we spent some time exploring before the sun fell behind the ridge.

augusta pano

larches lining the lake

lit larches

lazy sunset shot from camp

The winds picked up overnight and the gusts went from occasional to constant by the time we rolled out of bed to see the sunrise at 7. After breakfast we headed up to the Jim-Lou col, then southwest along the ridge toward Pt 7760+, mostly staying just east of the ridge proper to get out of the wind. The ridge was bare in places and had snow drifts up to my knees in others. On the final climb to Pt 7760+, there was enough snow that I had to kick a few steps before getting onto bare rock.

pink augusta

gold augusta

augusta sunrise pano

augusta from the trail to the col

on the ridge, big jim in the back

cabin creek basin + tarns

view to the west

looking back down the ridge to augusta

ahead to pt 7760+, big lou in the background

stuart + enchantments from pt7760+

big lou

looking down to ida + across icicle cr valley

The wind was whipping across the big flat summit of Pt 7760+ (big slide? or is big lou aka big slide? I don't know). Anyway, we didn't stick around long, we headed over the summit and down to Lake Ida, which was lovely (and much less windy). I took about a million photos here.

1 of 1000000

2 of 1000000

3 of 1000000

4 of 1000000

After a too-short stay at Ida we went back up and over Pt 7760+ to camp. I wish we had the full day to visit Carter Lakes and tag Big Jim and Big Lou, but our weather window was short for this trip; we had to pack up and head out. Lenticular clouds were creeping east over the ridge as we were leaving at 2 and the sky was completely clouded over to the west by the time we climbed out of the Cabin Creek basin.

clouds telling us to get moving

We made it back to the car at 5:15, just in time for dinner at Fresh Burger Cafe in Lworth for the second time in 8 days! ~19 mi, 7350' All the photos

[timberghost]

We had a good hunt in the same area. Was nice to not see many other people up there. Although the wind and rain storm was a bit interesting. Many more burned trees down now so the work crews will have their work cut out for them.

[Roly Poly]

How was the exit thru the burnt forest in the winds? Any trees falling? I got spooked by the winds the previous weekend. We had trees falling very close to us.

[HermitThrush]

Good to know there's larches over that way, didn't realize you could get those off of Cabin Creek. Thanks for the report!

[rubywrangler]

[JimK]

Thanks for the report and photos. I'm shocked to hear that it was windy overnight. Has anyone ever been up there when it wasn't?

[Bootpathguy]

Oh that lake!!! It is one of my all time favorites. It's especially beautiful on a sunny larchy day. Thanks for the memories

[Roly Poly]

The photos of the lake labeled 1 and 2 of 100000 toward the end of the report look like an infinity pool. Very unique angle.

[wildernessed]

You've been getting the colorful trips this year.