[mbravenboer]

Thanks to Eve we found out that the Sourdough lookout was reachable with minimal snow. To make it a bit more interesting, we decided to do the loop up from Diablo to the lookout, and then down the Pierce Mountain trail to Ross Lake, returning via Ross Dam and the Diablo Lake trail. jdk610 reported on this loop earlier ( https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1060510 ). I should have read her report better, because we made a route mistake she clearly explained! Diablo To Sourdough Mountain Lookout There are a few blowdowns on the trail and a few remaining snow patches, but it was easy and we didn't need microspikes. This will likely be very different within a day though with the incoming weather. The forest is fairly open, which makes the climb pretty enjoyable.

Sourdough Mountain trailhead at Diablo

Colonial, Neve, and Pyramid early on the Sourdough Mountain trail

Sky

Crossing Sourdough Creek at about 5000ft

Colonial, Neve, and Pyramid early on the Sourdough Mountain trail

Thunder Arm of Diablo Lake

Thunder Arm of Diablo Lake

Colonial, Neve, and Pyramid at higher elevation. Other summits now show up, like Snowfield, Tricouni, and Primus

Looking west down the Skagit River drainage. Left is Big Devil, right is Davis

Looking west down the Skagit River drainage. Left is Big Devil, right is Davis

Stetattle Ridge NW, Lookout We followed the ridge NW for a bit. Somebody postholed for us there the day before, though the snow was still icy enough to carry us most of the time. We put on microspikes. Great views and easy ridge walking would love to follow this further on a future visit, but we had plans to do the loop, so didn't want to go too far.

John along the NW Stetattle ridge

Sourdough Lookout

Terror, McMillan Spire, Luna

Looking north, with Sourdough Lake in the foreground and Rustic, Redoubt, Spickard, Prophet

Sourdough Lookout

Jack Mountain and Ross Lake

Hozomeen and Ross Lake

Ruby from the lookout

Lookout prepared for winter

Jack and Crater from the lookout

Thunder Arm from the lookout

Colonial, Neve, Pyramid from the lookout

Panorama west

Panorama north-west

Panorama north

Hozomeen from the lookout

View north from the lookout

Despair, McMillan Spire, Terror

Martin at Sourdough Lookout

Pierce Mountain, ridge section The ridge was mostly snow covered so we just found our way down. Eventually we saw some traces of a bootpath. There ridge has many ponds.

Snow, ice and panoramic views along the ridge

Hozomeen

Descending from Sourdough Lookout

Hozomeen

Frozen pond on the ridge descending from the lookout

Jack & Crater, Pierce Mountain in foreground

Pierce Mountain Trail We were a bit too attached to the trail on the map, and returned when we were clearly beyond it to find a trail down. This was unsuccessful, and our bet was that it was better to go down and find it. We didn't hit the trail though, but decided to keep bushwhacking until we would meet the trail at about 4200ft. The correct trail is shown in blue on the map below, and also jdk610 explains it well in her report. The area around 4200 feet is kind of interesting. There is a big open patch that kind of looks like a helipad and has awesome views. Might make for a nice snowshoeing trip in winter. We found the trail at about 4000 feet and from there it was smooth.

View towards Majestic Mountain

Ruby from ~4200ft on the Pierce Mountain Way trail

Pierce Mountain Trail is easy to follow

Mom and kid along Pierce Mtn trail

Intersection of Pierce Mtn Trail and Big Beaver Trail

Ross Dam, Diablo Lake The hike back along the power infrastructure was kind of interesting. We hadn't seen this up close before. It was a bit confusing around the Diablo Resort in the dark, but we managed okay. The Diablo Lake trail has nice autumn colors right now.

Ross Dam

Ross Dam

Splitgate of Ross Dam

Ross Dam

Ross Dam

Ross Dam

Ross Powerhouse

After descending from Ross Dam we continued on the Diablo Lake Trail

Ross Powerhouse

Deer (Diablo Lake Trail)

Deer (Diablo Lake Trail)

Some mushrooms glowing in the dark

Diablo Dam

Diablo Powerhouse looks dark

Map

GPS track of Sourdough Mountain / Pierce Mountain / Ross Dam / Diablo Lake loop. Note that at the ridge we assumed we couldn't find the trail down, and bushwacked. The trail turns out to be rerouted, approximately shown in blue. 19 miles, ~6700ft gain

Stats: about 19 miles, about 6700ft elevation gain

[rbuzby]

Nice trip and pics. In pic #14 above, with the caption "Looking north, with Sourdough Lake in the foreground and Rustic, Redoubt, Spickard, Prophet" what is the mountain immediately to the left of Redoubt? The one at the far left (in the distance) is Bear mountain. To the right of Redoubt is Mox and Spickard, and probably Prophet at the far right. What is the peak between Redoubt and Bear? I'm, looking at GMAP4 and it doesn't have a name on the map I'm seeing.

[mbravenboer]

[rbuzby]

Thanks. I thought it was 7747 on the map but didn't know the name.

[mbravenboer]

[goat]

Another fun trip, even with the bushwhacking! We probably wouldn’t have found that spot around 4200 without our detour, so it was worth it. I did the trip in trail runners and the icy snow meant my feet barely got wet. But I’m sure that will change with the weather on the way. I didn’t take any memorable pictures, except for Martin advertising his new jacket and a certain hazelnut chocolate spread. Might need trademark clearance to post that!

[mbravenboer]

I assume you didn't want to expose my love for Nutella raisin bread and overly expensive gear, so I'll do it myself . It's a nice jacket though. Based on criticism on clothing color by people like radka I got a red one.

Panorama with somebody eating a Nutella sandwich

[Brushbuffalo]

Beautiful!!!