Excellent but tough 3 day / 2 night backpacking trip with ngie, as we got up to five summits, Camp Robber Peak, Atrium Peak, Tourmaline Peak, Wild Goat Peak, and Saint Agnes Ridge.

Sat 10/4-(red track) We got started at 7:30am from the West Fork Foss Trail and backpacked in to Big Heart Lake. We took the second campsite past the outflow of Big Heart Lake. We had light rain for a bit and it was sprinkling when we set up our tents. After setting up our tent we took off for Camp Robber Peak. It was around 1pm. Be backtracked down to the outflow of the lake, and then took the trail down to the toilet, and then followed a faint path down to the lakeshore. From here we went up some talus and then some heather and to get up to a beautiful heather bench with a few tarns. There were a few berries here, but most had already fallen. At the end of this nice bench we had to get down to the shoreline of Big Heart Lake again. This part was a chore as the terrain was mega steep. We found a slot down thru a rock face, and then went straight down a dried up creek bed. 

Once back down to the lakeshore, we had to do a rising traverse on some more talus, and then up anther super steep slope of dirt, grass, and trees. After this it was pretty much boulder hopping 1000ft+ all the way up to the summit. The rain had stopped, but we were in the fog, so not much in the way of views from the summit 

From the summit we decided to traverse over towards Tourmaline and come down that way, instead of dropping down the way we came up. This traverse worked well, but it was tedious at times, and it involved lots of boulder hopping. The top of the ridge between Camp Robber and Toumaline Peaks is all jagged cliffs, so our traverse was well below the ridge top. We had a track from onehikeaweek that we used that worked out nicely. It was starting to get late, so we decided to traverse over at around 5750ft to get back down to the trail before nightfall. We got down to the trail between Big Heart Lake and Chetwoot Lake about 6:30pm. Now we had to drop down 500ft before heading up 400ft to get up to the summit of Atrium Peak. It was now dark, so we did the final scramble up to Atrium Peak in the dark with headlamps, getting to the summit at 7:50 pm. We then hiked back to our camp in heavy fog, arriving at 8:30pm. 14.5 miles with 7362 gain.

Sun 10/5-(blue track) We got started at 9:00am under sunny skies for our ascent attempt on Toumaline and Wild Goat Peaks. We took the same way we took back the night before, and left the trail at 5340 for our ascent up to Tourmaline. We knew the route up to 5700ft which eliminated any route finding, which was nice. We now had the 500ft ascent up more boulders up to the summit of Tourmaline Peak. This summit has some excellent views. Such a nice day!!

Since it is all cliffs on the south and west sides of Tourmaline Peak, we had to drop back down to 5700ft to find a way down to Chetwoot Lake. The first part was straightforward enough, but the final 700ft down to the lake was a chore. So much super steep terrain with tons of brush. It worked, but it was tough, and time consuming. Once down near the lake we went up some more heather, passing an un named lake, before heading up more steep talus and boulder hopping to get to a saddle just below Wild Goat Peak. Once at this saddle we had the final ascent boulder hopping up to the summit. Wild Goat summit also has some great views. On the way down we took the more standard route down to Chetwoot Lake, going down on the south side of f the lake. The traverse down to the lake involved more boulder hopping, which was the story of the trip, and took us much longer than we had anticipated. Along the lakeshore, there is a rock buttress that goes all the way down to the lakeshore. I found it easier to go up 150ft from the lake finding a nice heather bench to bypass this, than to try and do an exposed scramble down closer to the lake. Once down at the outflow of Chetwoot Lake we filled up with water, and now had the hike back to camp, which involved some big ups and downs. We arrived back at camp at 8:45pm 9.8 miles with 5492ft gain.

Mon 10/6-(yellow track) We started at 8:20am for our ascent to Saint Agnes Ridge. We took the trail up towards Atrium Peak, where at around 4900ft  we took a faint trail that headed over to the outlet of Angeline Lake. You can't get to Angeline Lake with out dropping down 300ft because it is all cliffs, and there is a huge canyon for the outflow of the lake. The last 150 vertical ft down to the outflow of Angeline is mega steep. I put on microspikes for this section, and still was hanging off of tree limbs to safely get down, and then back up on the way back. Once down to the base of the canyon, it was a short boulder hop over some huge boulders to get to the other side. You could hear water running underneath. Once at the other side of the outflow, there was a faint trail to follow at times, with the occasional cairn to help lead you thru some tricky parts, but for the most part followed the ridge up to around 5200ft. Here  at 5200ft we traversed over on talus underneath some cliff faces, and found a way up and around these cliffs to the north side, where the grade was much more gradual than the ridge spine. Summit of Saint Agnes is in the trees, but there are some sweet views from near the summit. The summit register is in a glass mason jar. The jar is ok, but the lid has rusted away. The paper is dry, and we added a couple more plastic bags to it, and place it upside down, but it needs a new register container, and also some new paper. After our summit stay, we retraced our steps back to camp, where we packed up, and hiked back down to the trailhead arriving at 4:50pm. 11.1 miles with 2782ft gain.

Great trip in a beautiful rugged area. Our total for the 3 days was 35.4 miles with 15,636ft gain

No trip report Tim dragged me around the mountains this week for a 4 night extravaganza.

Starting on 9/17. Trail up to Myrtle was nice. Routefinding up to big snow lake and Snowflake Lake wasn't bad. However, carin's were very sparse. camped at Snowflake, lots of of fish in big snow lake.

Day 2 started with a steep ascent of Big Snow Mountain following talus and creek beds. Pretty strenuous, but not too bad. At this point Carin's are more of something to stumble upon then to follow. grabbed the summit, which was about the smokiest elevation around, and headed down to Gold Lake and the 4 or 5 tarns above it, this took much longer than anticipated. Plenty of fish here as well.
After a quick dip we head north to wrap around Wild Goat Peak to Chetwood Lake on some seldom walked talus. Very wild drainage area, and very intense. We loop around the Southside of Chetwood with headlamps on steep talus and make camp near its east shore.

Day 3 is, surprise, more talus! much more traveled, though, which was nice. Routefinding becomes easier, but the terrain remains absolutely wild. we stop at iron cap lake for some water and to soak up its mesmerizing silty blue beauty. From here we head to the Tank Lakes where we saw multiple parties camping. some of the first people we've seen in 3 days. after some water we drop down fast into the end of the Necklace Valley and then up the last steep push to the La Bohn Lakes where we make canp. We decide Mount Hinman is a bit much for our tired toes, so we leave it for another trip. Saw some weird string of lights in the sky that I'll have to look up later. Hanging a food bag here is pretty laughable so an actual bear bag is recommended.

Day 4 starts with us finalizing our decision to bail on Hinman and we walk steep talus to Williams Lake. Some awesome mining history just above that we spent an hour or so checking out.
From Williams we have an actual trail so we turn the speed up and make it to the end of the forest service road that heads up the middlefork and camp at a major hub on the river.

Day 5 is just a wet road hike. the rain started around 5am and didn't let up until around noon so we walked out with soggy feet.

Over all a killer trip. No trip report Tim gives it a 9/10 for difficulty in our current shape. I'd have to agree.

Alpine Lakes High Route, counterclockwise. Amazing hike, just be careful of daylight and water supply. Road in and trailhead toilets are all good. 

West Fork Foss Trailhead to Big Heart Lake: Started at West Fork Foss Trailhead at 7, made Trout Lake by 7:30 and Copper by 8:30. Low hanging clouds and fog in the morning made for cool and damp conditions, especially with the brush going up to Copper Lake. There are some blowdowns in this section, some quite large, but all easy to navigate. Slowed a little on descending into Big Heart Lake, made it there by 9:30. Pretty easy terrain on this section, some bits are rocky but overall smooth sailing.

Big Heart Lake to Tank Lakes: Start by moving up to the ridge between Big Heart and Angeline Lakes. Apparently the trail here is harder to find than I imagined, I accidentally ended up just below the summit of Atrium Peak and had to backtrack a little to stay on the safer shoulder. The clouds had started to lift, and I was able to look down onto both lakes as well as the ridge where I was headed. With all the elevation gained and lost, definitely was moving slower on this section. Strava activity shows the pace for each mile well. Stopped at Chetwoot Lake and filtered water, was nice and cool. Leaving Chetwoot, the trail quickly becomes boulder field more than anything. This goes on for a little over three miles, around the shoulder of Iron Cap, through Iron Cap Lake basin (beautiful), before dropping down and immediately back up to Iron Cap Gap. The occasional cairns are helpful, but Gaia is more so. There are sections where it is simultaneously steep, the trail consists of large boulders, no trail marking, and close to a cliff. Definitely benefited from having a hiking pole and trail runners with good cushioning. If it had been sunny out, this entire three miles would have been incredibly exposed and baking on the rocks as well. As it is a rock field, there are many, many pikas. From Iron Cap Gap, the trail is much easier to follow and leads the final bit of elevation up to Tank Lakes. Made it to lunch at Tank Lakes by 1:30 and ran into my parents (they moved the car to East Fork TH and hiked in). 

Tank Lakes to East Fork Foss Trailhead: Just a tiny bit more rock terrain is easy after Iron Cap. Descend along the ridge and then down into the valley, where it takes a little over a mile from the lake to get back to easy to follow trail. Drop down 2000 more feet in short order before taking the Necklace Valley river trail out to the trailhead. The last five miles are by far the nicest, easiest, most relaxing section of trail. For this reason I would recommend doing the high route in one day counterclockwise, to finish with this. For multi-day it probably matters a little less.

Garmin logged 27.5 miles and 8700 feet of elevation gain (2 of these miles were backtracking to carry my parents packs). 10 hours of moving time, 11 hours elapsed time. The elevation is no joke, especially when lots of it is done over rocky terrain. Only ever saw bugs when stopped, a couple at Chetwoot and some more at Tank Lakes. Lots of pikas all over the rocks, some marmots up at Tank Lakes, many birds, butterflies, and frogs across the rest of the trail. Wildflowers all over and some blueberries over by Big Heart Lake and Atrium Peak. Definitely want to go back when it is sunnier. Good amount of people out, but never felt crowded. It's always nice to run into friendly people on the trial (shoutout the three trail runners).

I've had the Alpine Lakes High Route and Mt Hinman on my list of trips to knock out at some point, so a buddy of mine and I decided to combine them into one trip and hope for the best. I knew the heat would be a factor, but I didn't realize it would impact me as much as it did! https://youtu.be/nWUSYwndlHM

We started up Necklace Valley and everything was going fine until about mile 7 when I hit the wall. I was way too hot, burning through water and electrolytes like crazy. It was a very slow grind to La Bohn Lakes but eventually we made it. Bugs were not bad all the way from Necklace Valley to La Bohn Lakes.

The next morning we woke up to some fog and a cool breeze which was a life saver for me. We went up Hinman and checked that off the list. Side note, Gaia and Caltopo show 2 different summits as the true summit, so we did both just in case.

We got back down to camp and packed up and continued the route to Chetwoot Lake for the night. Bugs started getting bad before Iron Cap Lake, and then they were horrendous at Chetwoot. Nothing was slowing them down, so good luck. The trail here was pretty well defined, but decently slow going since there is a lot of rock hopping you have to do.

The next day we trekked all the way out through West Fork Foss. Getting from Chetwoot to Big Heart Lake as a process but after that it is pretty clear sailing. Again bugs were pretty good from Big Heart all the way to the trailhead. So they seem to be in that sweet spot between Chetwoot's elevation and La Bohn.

We clocked about 33 miles and 11,200' elevation gain.

An overnight hike to Chetwoot Lake, Sept 8-9, via Foss Lakes, full of solitude and big blue (sub)alpine lakes. 

I hit the trail at 8am and stopped for lunch at Big Heart Lake, a popular and very scenic spot. The trail to Big Heart Lake is in good shape, as reported elsewhere, with one large blowdown about 2/3 the way up the climb to Copper Lake. 

Beyond BHL is where the fun begins. The first 3/4 of a mile is on well-established tread. After a nice view of Angeline Lake, the trail stops being a trail and becomes more of a way. Route finding is not difficult (stay on the spine), but there are false paths here and there that will lead to views or circle you backwards. There are a few sections with veggie belays and a couple of places where you will need to down-climb some boulders. After a small saddle on the spine separating BHL and AL, the way becomes easier, climbing to a small lake above Chetwoot, before a steep descent to Little Chetwoot Lake, a short distance from the main lake. 

There are several nice campsites between the two lakes, as well as a new privy. Most folks stopping here were doing the Alpine Lakes High Route. Although Chetwoot is only about 2.5 miles from BHL, I would plan on it taking 2-3 hours, unless you are familiar with the route.