[Justus S.]

Scrabble Mtn (5691) For the start of my hike today, I found myself at Smithbrook off Hwy 2. Morning clouds had bleed over the crest from the west during the night. The clouds would make for a fairly cool hike today at least until the sun burned them off in the afternoon. I hiked up to the PCT and headed Northbound. I made my way down and around to Janus Lake. I proceeded up the PCT to around 4700ft. From here, I left the trail and made a traverse to Grouse Lk. a nice but shallow lake. Took about 1hr for this traverse. From Grouse, I hiked up to the saddle north of Pt 5576. It was then over and down to the saddle with Scrabble and up to the treed summit. With the cooler start to summer there were still some intermittent snow patches to hike up. By chance, as I was just leaving, I noticed a summit reg stuck in a stump. Pretty hard to see. It was from Stefan’s party in 07. No one had spotted or signed since. The summit area was still cloudy so no real views through tree openings. Back at the saddle below Scrabble, I decided to head out a different way. I would traverse high above Cup Lk and then make my way to the PCT. I crossed a nice marshy area enroute (trip highlight). Patchy snow helped make travel a bit easier along with brush that hadn’t fully grown out yet. The sun burned off the clouds about halfway over to the PCT, and it started to get warm. I was quite happy to finally reach the PCT and easier walking. This section of the PCT still had patchy snow. The snow is only a few feet deep so probably in a week or two it will mostly be gone. I actually met quite a few PCT section hikers on my hike out. I have to think the snowier sections might slow them down a bit. It was a bit of a slog to get back to the car especially with that elevation gain after Janus. Overall, a good trip. Notes: Trip time 10hrs. Mosquitoes pretty annoying at times especially higher elevations. Various flowers starting to pop out.

Grouse

Cup

Pete

Marsh Deer

Marsh Fawn

Marsh Flowers

Marsh Spider

Marsh Flowers

Marsh Frog

Glacier from PCT

David from PCT

[Celticclimber]

I did that peak many years back. Never knew it's name: Now I do I agree with you about the trug up from Janus to the PCT.