[jaysway]

This was far from them most exciting trip, but I got a lot of joy of photographing this area. I pulled the trigger on this trip at the last minute and with time constraints the next day I needed to find a pretty short trail. The way up only involved some scrambling because I didn't take the best social trail (didn't have any beta, just used a map), but going down I took a better route and it was just a steep trail. Great clouds in the evening and then clear the next day with some haze from the Goat Rocks Fire. Pictures here are in roughly reserve chronological order as this order builds to more drama with the cloudy sunset. I would love to come back here with more time and get up onto the ridge and maybe scramble some of the nearby peaks.

There were two groups of day hikers up here for sunset, one from Seattle and the other from Utah

[zephyr]

[half fast]

[Sore Feet]

Vesper: 9/25-26 About 40 cars at the trailhead around 1:30pm on Sunday, several parties were overnight on Saturday night but nobody else was there Sunday night. Trail has been liberally brushed for the first mile or so. No water after the river crossing until the outlet of the lake. No mosquitoes anymore, but the biting flies are still out and super annoying. Got bit behind both ears, several on the arm, etc. There's a yellowjacket nest right in the middle of the trail about 4/10 of a mile past the river crossing, right where the trail re-enters the forest after the steep switchbacks up the exposed slope. About a 1" hole right under a root spanning the whole trail, but it can be easily bypassed on the left without bothering them (much). Didn't encounter anyone mentioning the bees, so maybe they're not in fully pissed off mode yet.

[zephyr]

[Sky Hiker]

When do they achieve fully pissed off mode?

[Sore Feet]

[jaysway]

Some shots from my long weekend. I won't provide too much commentary, but here are some miscellaneous thoughts: I saw one bear a day for four days (it is quite possible that my third and fourth bear sightings were the same bear). Despite people carpooling it somehow felt like there was a mismatch between the crazy number of people I saw while coming down to the trailhead on Sunday and the more modest number of cars at and beyond the trailhead. I love how trails can go from crowded to not seeing another human as soon as you take a less-traveled fork and then go cross-country. And finally, while there were a lot of people it was a beautiful weekend (minus an awful Friday night and smoke coming in on Sunday) and I'm happy that lots of people got outside. Thursday

Friday-Sunday

[RichP]

Red Mtn West, Peak 5357 and Fools Day Peak Sept 26, 2022 Red Mountain West and Peak 5357 are located near Little Joe Lake up FR 4312 (Thorp Ck). I wanted to bag both of these so I devised a loop up the trail and bushwhacked back down to FR 121 which is decommissioned but still passable for hiking. This all worked and ended up being a 6.7 mile loop with about 2500' of gain. Though I saw several cars at the trailhead, I didn't see anybody else except right at the start. This is also a route to Red Mtn and Thorp Mtn.

Fools Day peak which I would visit later in the day

One of the larger blowdowns on Trail#1330.1

Little Joe Lake on its way to becoming a meadow

Red Mtn from Red West

Red Mtn West summit views

Red Mtn West summit views

I dropped back down to the 5000' saddle below Red Mtn West and headed over to peak 5357. There are some boulder gardens on the way up after leaving the trail but nothing difficult.

Peak 5357 to the west

Red Mtn West from near the top of Peak 5357

After dropping down to FR 121, I walked back to my car and drove up the road a short distance to spur 125 to see if it was drivable. Much to my surprise it was and I made it to about 4200' before encroaching brush stopped me. I parked and walked the rest of the way up. The road actually improves higher up and I was soon at the end. I bushwhacked up through thick young timber and huckleberries and entered mature forest on the west ridge of Fools Day Peak which is usually done as a snowshoe from the opposite side. A nice ridge walk led to the top at 5203' which took about 45 min from my car.

nearing the summit of Fools Day Peak on the west ridge

[kiliki]

I wanted fall color and meadows but not many people, with a reasonable drive from Seattle so I could get back to watch the Ms, today. What I really wanted was the color you see at Paradise at its peak, where it's just a sea of red and yellow, but didn't want to deal with Paradise crowds. I tried Berkeley Park. White River entrance at 10:15, only 6 cars in line, all had passes. 2 cars at the Owyhigh Lakes th; only one roadside spot left at Summerland; tons of room in the Sunrise lot. There was some color; there was a nice stretch right before the Berkeley Park campsites. But not as much as I'd hoped. You can see Mt Fremont Lookout in this.

[Lazyhiker]

Great day Thursday out of the smoke

[Chief Joseph]

Finally did some rafting in my old Curtis raft, perfect fall weather. Fished Boardman lake, no luck but had a couple of strikes and there were a few fish rising. Everything is late this year so still a few bugs for the fishies. Today went to my fav lake (PM for info) right away caught a 10" fat Cutt on a dry fly, then a 12" inch fattie on a wet fly trolled. My son caught a nice 10" Rainbow. All was good except my raft bottom is leaking again, so sat in about 4" of water, good thing it was warm. Had a friend come and visit, we hiked to the Wigwams old fire lookout peak on the east side of Priest lake last week, Hunt lake, Hughes ridge fire lookout, Hughes meadows and the trail up to Cabinet pass.

[FiveNines]

Fire in disguise

Went goofing around on SE slopes of Cashmere yesterday. Slow pace and strenuous effort convinced me to quit while ahead, after barely finishing the approach. Goofing off kept to a minimum. Thick smoke in Wenatchee valley pushes into Icicle as the day progresses. The journey begins.

1st of 14,000 steps

Up up and away.

Smoke in the valley.

Where's Tibbets?

Goofing around. Saying hi to old friends.

goofing up

getting down

To all my friends!

Contribution to Sherpa Balanced Rock vs Sherpa main summit debate

whose higher?

Smoke in the valley. Remix.

extended jam

Mountains leave me weak in the knees. Time to go home.

only 350 steps to go

3h up, 2h down, 1.5h goofing around. 3,500 steps on good footing. 14,000 steps on steep sidehills.

[Chief Joseph]

Went back up to Island lake past Boardman for the first time in about 10 years to see how the fishing was, it wasn't, not a single riser despite there still being quite a bit of bug activity. Pretty brutal hike for an out of shape old guy, although the trail is in great shape and has been brushed out within about a half mile of the lake, lots of ups and downs and really steep up at the end. Pretty clean campsites, a couple of rusty cans in the fire pit and an un-opened can of shittake mushrooms someone left (it's going into my next batch of spaghetti). Between the horrible 6+ mile road and no fish, I won't soon be going back to this area, except maybe to try to find a seekrit lake that is rumored to hold big fish. We were also surprised to actually find some decent blue hucks, a bit bitter but ate a couple dozen anyway. We found them at about 3300'. No people at all and a very nice, scenic little lake, so if you aren't into fishing, but natures beauty and solitude, this is the place for you. For an even cooler and isolated setting, take a short raft trip to the island.

[RichP]

Seven Devils in Idaho for a climb of He Devil. I brought up a new register courtesy of a local outdoor gear shop in Moscow and took the old one down which was broken. Turns out the old register wan't even on the summit which is the next bump east. So the new one is there. The unofficial trail over Goat Pass is ingenious. Stopped by the Heaven's Gate on the way out and chatted with the lookout on the final weekend of the season.

Camp at Sheep Lake

Early light on He Devil

8740, a bonus peak

She Devil

Looking up to He Devil

Lakes and Hells canyon

Getting close

Not the summit

Back down to Sheep Lake from Peak 8740

Farewell He Devil

Heaven's Gate Lookout