[zeldathewelder]

A very easy day, a very beautiful day up to Bearhead Peak, just north of the Carbon River. The road up started bare and dry, but then intermittent packed snow, slippery, finally at the “Y” with Coplay Lake I put the 4-Runner in 4-High. At 8 AM I was the first to arrive, although someone was camped in the lot overnight. Other vehicles soon arrived, and I made a beeline to be first up the trail. The entire route up to leaving for Bearhead ridge is recurrent bare, snow and ice.

I finally gave in and put my Microspikes on after getting tired of my slow progress along the icy patches. From there the travel was fast and easy. I even had a lovely peek-a-boo of The Mountain. Leaving the main trail for the Bearhead ridge I was finally in snow. There were recent human tracks following the boot path, so I did not have to route find at all.

On top of Bearhead, alone, I soaked up the silence and the views of The Mountain, Bearhead East and Summit Lake.

The others who had been up recently had also traveled the ridge to the east. This goofed my on my way down as the snow was hard, leaving no prints on the slope, but at the top very sugary. I traveled past the route down 4 times before locating it! Knowing now about the constant-intermittent ice along the trail, descending I kept the Microspikes on back to the parking lot. That made travel much faster. All in all, including lollygagging in the silent sun and looking for prints in the snow at the top, it was a short but sweet day alone on Bearhead.

[KascadeFlat]

Looks like a fun day out! Love the unique perspective on Summit Lake. We are going to be up in this general area this weekend. Thank you for the info re condition of trail/road.