[ragman and rodman]

Three more Back Court 100 peaks have been crossed off of my list... a list that had not received much of my attention over the past couple of years until two months ago when I got to do the east and west peaks of French Ridge near Robin Lakes. When I finished those two and got back home I started to take another look at the BC 100 list and realized that a three-fer might be possible on a single trip to the Bulls Tooth area... and that's when I started to promote the idea of this trip among my hiking friends... and while we had to cancel the trip twice due to weather issues, we finally found a 3 day weather window that fit everyone's calendar. --------------------------------------- Day 1: We drove to the Stevens Pass Nordic Center and continued driving up Mill Creek Road for 5.6 miles... where we parked (~4630') underneath the powerlines near the spot where the PCT crosses the road. Note that the last quarter mile of the road is really rugged... and a high clearance vehicle is required. We hiked south on the PCT until we were above Josephine Lake... where we started hiking on Icicle Creek Trail #1551... which we followed beyond the mouth of Josephine and on down into the Icicle Creek drainage... where we found the beginning (~3800') of Chain Lakes Trail #1569 after hiking a total of 4.9 miles... leaving a steep 2.1 mile hike up to the lower Chain Lake (5628'). We dropped our backpacks at the lower lake... then backtracked a very short distance on the trail... then bushwhacked and scrambled a half-mile up Lemool's SE ridge to the summit (6284')... where we soaked up some nice views before more or less tracing our steps back down to lower Chain Lake... where we picked up our packs and continued on up the trail to our base camp (~5700') near the far end of the middle lake. Daily stats... 8.6 miles, gaining 3775 feet of elevation... if you skip the Lemool summit, the stats would be 7.6 miles, gaining 3100 feet of elevation. ---------------------------------------------- Day 2: Leaving base camp we followed an obvious path that took us between the middle and upper lakes before continuing along the west side of the upper lake and on up into what I would call the Bulls Tooth cirque... where we tried to avoid as many boulder fields as possible as we wound our way up to the summit block... where a short Class 2/3 scramble got us up the north side of the summit block to the summit (6840'). Broad views in all directions. We pretty much traced our steps from the Bulls Tooth summit back down to ~6170 feet... then instead of returning to the upper lake, we began a traverse that took us over to a 6200 foot pass that separates the Chain Lakes and Doelle Lakes... where we gave up 500 hundred feet of elevation down to and beyond the Doelle's and on over to a 5700 foot saddle... where we found a faint path that took us along the west side of Doughgob and on over to its north ridge (~6000')... leaving a short hike up to the Doughgob Mountain summit (6172'). Broad views in all directions... and the autumn colors in this area were stunning. Leaving the Doughgob summit we more or less traced our steps back to the 6200 foot pass that separates the Chain Lakes and Doelle Lakes... then followed the Chain Lakes Trail back down to our base camp. Daily stats... 5.9 miles, gaining 3012 feet of elevation. ----------------------------------------------------- Day 3: Break camp and hike back to the car. Daily stats... 7.6 miles, gaining 1922 feet of elevation. ----------------------------------------------------- Photos, trailhead directions and downloadable GPS track of our backpack trip to Bulls Tooth, Lemool Mountain and Doughgob Mountain. ..

[Type E]

So jealous that you had good weather, weather has not been my friend at my stays at chain lakes

[cartman]

I loved that approach and that area, really scenic and fun. Does that put you over 90 Back Court peaks?

[BarbE]

Cartman, I believe Ragman is one peak short of 90. Fortunately for us and his list, this most enjoyable trip was put on the agenda. Beautiful scenery and no other hikers/campers heard or seen while up there.

Leaving Lemool

Chain Lake/Peak

Camp views

up

Near Bulls Tooth summit

Bulls Tooth summit views

Bulls Tooth summit views w/Baker & Glacier Peak

Below false Doughgob summit

Doughgob summit

Blazing colors blow Doughgob

Isabel enjoying the scenery

Bulls Tooth backside

Doelle Lakes

Happy hour

Breakfast in bed after a cold rainy night

Middle Chain Lake after the rain

[RichP]

Nice fall colors in your beautiful photos, Barb.

[ragman and rodman]