[ALW Hiker]

A lake-bagging friend and I made it up to the top of Green Ridge last Sunday en route to the Garfield Mountain Lakes area. We were hoping to reach both Garfield Mountain Lakes and Charlie Brown Lake, but due to time constraints and the slowness of progress, we turned around at Upper Garfield Mountain Lake after lunch. Nothing too interesting to report about the Green Ridge Trail itself. There are quite a few annoying blowdowns, mostly in the bottom 1000' of the trail. This was my third time on this trail and it seems to get steeper every time I visit.

Climbing the steep Green Ridge Trail

Once you pass the "official" end of the trail on most maps, the way is more free-form, since the ridge broadens. However, once you near the top of the ridge at about 4800' it becomes more trail-like again, since there are steep slopes on both sides and the route pretty much sticks to the crest all the way to Tarn 4662.

Following the ridge over the 4800' high point

Finally, some meadows in the high point SE of Tarn 4662

Descending to Tarn 4662

Tarn 4662 is a gorgeous place, and actually deep enough for swimming with a few rock islands in it. Probably my favorite spot of the whole trip, especially with the fall colors, and some nice views in various directions.

Tarn 4662 and Garfield East

Fall color explosion just below Tarn 4662

Dried-up tarn and Treen Peak

From 4662, we took the NW gully down toward Upper Garfield Mountain Lake. This was brushier and steeper than expected, but I should have known a Middle Fork adventure would involve that! We stayed in the gully about halfway down before veering right into some brush and finally some rock. Unfortunately, I descended below the rock into endless brush - should have stayed right into the next talus field over, which we used on the way back.

Steep slopes and brush heading down to Upper Garfield Mountain lake

Upper Garfield Mountain Lake and Garfield East

Lake bagging UGM

At the lake there were nice views and lunch was had - we had a hard time finding shade, but who knew that would be a thing in October! I would have liked to circumnavigate the lake, but it looked pretty cumbersome and we didn't have time on this trip. Someone apparently has a favorite campsite on top of a huge boulder right at the lake, including tools and an elaborate rock fire pit. On the way up, we stayed on rock much farther up, which worked well, though we still had a brief section of hoisting ourselves up the duff with huckleberry "ropes". It was great to get back up to that tarn and hang out for a bit. I got some good views from the cliffs east of the tarn over to Carole Lake and Nordrum, neither of which I've been to yet. It looks pretty brushy around Carole, but that was expected from earlier reports. We detoured over to tarn 4530 on the way back - I'd only seen it snow-covered last year. I found that area much more appealing in the snow - it's a muddy tarn and quite brushy over there now. Not really worth the detour IMHO.

Leaving UGM

Tarn 4662 again

Tarn 4662 and Garfield East

Looking toward Taylor River Valley - we can see Carole Lake, and Nordrum Lake in the distance behind Floating Rock

Infrequently-seen view of Hinman, Daniel, and Wild Goat Peak

Tarn 4530

My hiking partner used spikes the entire way down, which helped on the steep duff. I had poles (thank goodness) but forgot my spikes at home. As much of a steep grind as that Green Ridge Trail is going up, it's much worse going down. We had to stop a few times partway down just to give our legs a break.

[Nancyann]

Cool to see Lake Carole! I was up there in the early ‘70’s but we came straight up Treen Peak from the other side, using an old rope to climb up a waterfall.

[Roly Poly]

You are tough! And Jill too! Looking forward to your primarily trail hike next week.

[ALW Hiker]

[Backpacker Joe]

I remember that area well. Nice to see it again.