[geyer]

Dates: July 7-8, 2018 Distance: 19.6 miles Accum. Elevation Gain: 7900' Total Humans Seen: Not a soul, but lots of frogs With the rough day on Lemah still on my mind, I was thinking an easy alpine lakes expedition would be nice. This thought quickly became an easy peak with views of alpine lakes, which soon turned into just any old peak with sweet lake views. Sigh. How did we get to this point? The goal I arrived on was Mount Tommy Thompson, passing by the Found Lakes, with an overnight at Peak 6142 for astrophotography. The weather called for rain before 11 am on Saturday, so I figured I would get a later start since the mileage wasn't too bad. Just before leaving, I realized that there was a 3 mile road walk, which made the second day's mileage considerably less tolerable. I was already giving the Tom-Thom summit push a coin flip's chance of happening. (I was a bit intimidated of going in through Slide Lake to cut mileage based on the TR from earlier this year, plus I had been wanting to see Snowking Lake.) I decided to wear boots instead of runners for TT based on my Lemah misfortunes. I drove to the "trailhead" to begin hiking on the "trail." The "trail" is one of the old road's tire ruts with blueberries and ferns leaning over each side. Nothing wrong with that as long as it's easy to hike through........ unlessss..... well, unless it had just rained earlier in the day and all the leaves were covered in water droplets that quickly covered your pants and fell down your legs to the inside of your boots. Your boots, which by the way, have a goretex lining that doesn't breathe well when both sides are wet. Awesome! 10 minutes in and I'm already miserable. Ok. Ok. That's an exaggeration; it wasn't that bad -- yet -- but it would be. More on that later...

End of road = start of trail

Excuse me, I meant "trail". Nice and wet, too!

After almost exactly 3 miles on the road, you reach an endpoint where you turn off to the left instead of following the remainder of the old 1570 road to the 4WD trail as I had thought. This trail...sorry "trail" ... goes straight up the mountain, about 2400' gain in 1.5 miles. Not the biggest gainer I've been on, but it didn't help that there were quite a few blowdowns that made the trail disappear, leaving you to bushwack and hope that you can pick the trail back up. Once you get to about 4600', there are open meadows (or in my case, open snowfields) that make the hiking easier. At the 4800' saddle, I expected to continue parallel to the ridge for a while on the supposed 4WD trail, but that was nowhere to be found. I didn't even try to follow it, because judging by the map, it went down the steepest part below Found Point. That didn't make sense to me. Instead, I followed a mellower contour, guided by flagging to the Found Lake outflow at 4020'. Then it was immediately back up the opposite ridge to reach Neori Lake at 4400' and then up another ridge to 4700' before dropping back down to 4480' at Snowking Lake. But not before getting a few sneak peaks at that jaw-dropping color. It was already later than anticipated, almost 7:30 pm, and I joked that I bet nobody else had ever been in such a hurry to leave this lake as soon as they got there. I had about 90 minutes to get on that ridge to 6142.

HUGE trees at the ridge

Who wants to go camping?

Found Lake

Found Lake Island

Kindy Ridge

Snowking

Neori Lake Reflection

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

After ascending the waterfall that flows into Snowking Lake, I made it to what became the biggest surprise of the trip for me - wetlands and a glacial moraine. As someone who really likes glaciers and the way they behave and the effects they have on an environment, this place was SOO COOL! It's a mystery how I still made it up to the ridge in time, because I was loving every sopping wet second of sloshing through this place. You look around and see these towering cliffs and rocky moraines and minimal vegetation and realize that once upon a time, this whole valley was filled with ice. Whoa.

Ascending the waterfall above the lake

wetlands

rock flour streams in the glacier basin

I had to keep moving, so I made it up to the ridge by scrambling some heather and mossy water trickles. The rest of the way up was an easy walk-up, but the views proved to be worthwhile. (bless you, Google Earth.)

Sunset from the ascent to the ridge

Views to the west down Otter Creek

Snowking peeking through the clouds

Tommy Thompson

I set up my camera for night photography and when I woke up, I found it covered in condensation. It still turned on, but none of the panel buttons were working! CRAP!!! It was a good thing I had pre-set my settings, or else I would not have been able to get this shot at all.

Astrophotog. Need to re-edit this one

The next morning, I woke up to much colder temps than anticipated. The NOAA 6000' weather report called for lows in the mid-40s overnight, but when I awoke, everything was covered in frost, including my wet boots and socks. I dreaded putting them back on, so I stayed in bed and took sunrise pictures from the comfort of my sleeping bag (I was still able to take pictures, but only in Automatic mode. ). In case you were wondering, Tommy Thompson was officially a no-go. Looking at the picture I took of it, it looks very do-able with snow. If I ever go back for it, I'll have to try a different approach route or take more time.

Wake-up views

Snowking pano

Lil' avalanche

still haven't gotten out of bed

Wake up with the King ® (but the Frosties are provided by Wendy's)

Pk 6743 with it's steep North Face

Mixed climbing anyone?

Eldorado

Cylcone Lake still Frozen

Tom-Thom

After a lazy morning and finally putting my boots back on, I packed up and headed out around 8:15 am. On the way down, I plunge stepped the snowfield, bypassing most of the scrambling. I stayed to climbers left through the marsh, which seemed slightly drier. Then I took a longer break at Snowking Lake to fully appreciate its colors in the sunlight. Around here, I started to notice the effects of wet socks and wet boot interiors rubbing on my ankles. The last 6.5 miles were actually quite miserable. I tried putting moleskin on, but nothing relieved the rubbing. Slow steps and shorter strides felt better, but once I got to the Found Lake trail, I just booked it so I could end the misery.

basin views

Silt everywhere

Silty muck

Just around the river bend

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Snowking Lake

Skaro Lake

Frog eggs? Not sure

Found Lake

When I got to the car and took my socks off, I was able to survey the damage. Not good. 360 degree rings of raw skin on both ankles, but especially the left. As of last night (Monday) my left ankle was swollen to the size of a softball. No really - it looked more like a tumor than an ankle. Oh well, time will heal it and those views were worth it. One thing time won't heal, however, is my camera. That one hurts... I'll be back for Snowking once my boots have dried off, which will probably be next April PS - does anyone have any record of ascents on Pk 6142? I can only assume it's been done several times, but I had to make the Peakbagger page for it. And I may be making my own rules here, but I thiiink that gives me rights to an unofficial name So staying with the Snowking/Snowqueen naming scheme, I was thinking something along the lines of Snowsquire or Snowserf or Snowpeasant? Let's be honest - Snowprince is too regal for this walkup. (I had a lot of time to think about this on the trail...)

[Bootpathguy]

:up Nice report. I think Cyclone Lake is the real prize in that area. Great photos Thankfully the Jade Lake & Blanca Lake lovers haven't discovered Snowking...yet

[mbravenboer]

Nice, that basin is pretty cool I love the discipline to be so close to Snowking and not go there Sorry to hear about your camera & feet!

[iron]

always bring an extra pair of socks. rotate them to dry out boots slowly. better than nothing and virtually zero weight penalty. nice TR. been awhile for a summer snowking version. still one of my more enjoyable winter ascents.

[GaliWalker]

Great trip, especially because it wasn't 'yet another Kindy Ridge - Cyclone Lake - Snowking Mountain' jaunt.

[mehitabel]

How are the mosquitos and biting flies?

[geyer]

[kitya]

I went to Cyclone in 2016 and there were a few people also going to Found lakes I met on the trail. While not as busy as Blanca, Found/Cyclone/Stormking lakes do get enough attention to maintain quite well defined trail. The beauty of all these lakes is insane.

[rubywrangler]

This area is so gorgeous, on my list of places to go back to. And it's where I met my first nwhiker in the wild! There are some really lovely and sad former glaciers/lakes N and S of Snowking's summit too. Would really like to check those out up close sometime.

[Distel32]

[cartman]

Great pics and colors, what a spectacular area.

[pjhorst]

Dayhiked in Saturday. Interesting to see how much the water level has dropped in 2 weeks.