This is one of those rare occasions to where one can get to the trailhead safely and also begin hiking in increasing snow pack right from the get-go. I think maybe one more week this area will be accessible whatsoever.

We began at the Esmerelda Basin/ Lake Ingalls trailhead. There were a few blowdowns from the latest storm but nothing a normal adult couldnt manuever around. The snow was intermittent within 10 feet of the trailhead and completely ingulfed within a quartermile at the first trail junction. It was snowing most of the day. We took a right turn to go up to the second trail junction for Lake Ingalls knowing we were not going the entire way. The snow became more around the 10 inches mark while getting up to 4000 feet. Individuals have paved the way with footprints and post holes to Lake Ingalls but not to Long Pass. We had lunch when the sun came out at the junction of Long Pass and Ingalls Trail. If you want to know more. Hit me up on social media- John Garrison, i will be travelling back there or the vicinity next weekend.

October 16 (8:30 pm): Fire is now 42,857 acres. Highway 97 is open and has no restrictions either north or south bound.  The closures for forest access roads remain (and shown by Xs in the fourth figure from Oct 16. The Xs on US97, t for 97, but are at junctions for USFS Roads).

October 9 (8:22 am): Fire is now 40,586 acres (~380 acres from 24 hours before).  Fire and heat have greatly abated and indeed some of the heat is coming from a series of backfires including those along Stafford Creek, Ingalls Creek, Tronsen Ridge, and Mission Creek, all in an effort to firm up fire lines in anticipating of strong winds as these fronts roll in.  I re-read my trip report for October 8, 2024 (Ingalls Pass and Lake) and noted that I left Seattle in a downpour and was treated to blue sky east of Iron Peak and mist and rain drops, thanks to very strong winds, from clouds over Fortune Peak.

The shut-down and the landscape recovery plan for every fire means that the current closure boundaries will remain in place for some time.  Air quality is much, much better.

October 7 (3:14 pm): US Highway 97 open with a pilot car (expect long delays, but road is open).  Still lots of heat and terrible smoke; fire continues to move eastward.  Fire grew by about 500 acres from yesterday (now at 39,753 acres).  Smoke on either side of central Cascades has resulted in very bad air quality.

Recommended web sites: https://wasmoke.blogspot.com/ , https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6cdda73cf6154949a1fae76ccb2900a0 , and https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-closures/waowf-labor-mountain-fire .

October 6 (9:07 am): Three important points regarding the fire and access to the area.  First, the rains, increased humidity, and lower temperatures all have helped (fire size only increased 4,000 acres in the last week); however, Sunday, October 5 was clear warm - the DNR heat map from 7:00 pm yesterday shows considerable heat in the Ingalls Creek and Etienne basin in the central, north of the fire extent, along US 97, Tronsen Ridge, and Mission and Sand Creeks on the eastern edge.  All previously active Washington State fires were producing considerable smoke, yesterday.  Today and tomorrow promise warm (and in the sun, hot) mid-day to evening heat enhancing fire activity. Second, we are in the beginning of a government shut-down, which will affect how fast the area in the fire and along its perimeter are recovered and USFS roads and trails will be re-opened.  Third and most critical, roads and trails in and along the perimeter are dangerous -- there are still hot pockets underground where the root system continues to burn.  Tree and slope failure are easily triggered -- time alone will trigger tree fall, rock fall, and slope failure.  Unless you are prepared to fight a small fire, move a very large rock, or cut through a 30 inch diameter tree that falls across the road you easily drove in the morning and now want to go home, honor (obey) the closures.  

September 29 (4:10 pm): Winds are pushing this fire E and NE. Size has increased by 10,000 plus acres.  Rain will help, the question remains, how much?

* See new closure map that includes USFS and DNR lands

* Recommended web sites: https://wasmoke.blogspot.com/ , https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6cdda73cf6154949a1fae76ccb2900a0 , and https://inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-closures/waowf-labor-mountain-fire .

Note: To the SW of the Labor Mountain fire, is the remains of the August 2017 Jolly Mountain Fire -- this can border can be easily seen at the confluence of Johnson Creek and the North Fork of the Teanaway. NE, E, and SE of the current fire are other older fires.  These can make nice fire breaks or because of the nature of remain fuels, can be excellent places for the fire to grow and expand.

September 26: Strong winds associated with the passage of a cold front on September 25 brought about a 10,604 acre or a 16.6 square mile increase in size of the Labor Mountain fire (see scaled Figure 2: two summits are indicated for comparison purposes and these are Iron Peak and Iron Mountain [also known as Iron Bear]).  Hopefully the 'promised' rain of the coming days will help otherwise waiting for snow may be the only end to this fire as well as the others.  

Closure of this area and perhaps some of the area around the Sourdough Moutain fire will put a lot of pressure on the Highway 20 subalpine larch viewing hikes.  Not a pretty picture.  As an aside, soon after coming over Washington Pass yesterday, a ridge facing east on the north side of the highway had a line of subalpine larch that was beginning to show clearly autumn colors.

September 24: With the new DNR heat map shows consider fire growth and heat upslope of the North Fork Road between Stafford and Beverly Creeks (see 'oval').  These changes are mostly likely due to back-firing where fuels are being ignited by firefighting personnel in order to reduce fuels and thus create a fire.  Red dots and lots of red dots on the opposite side of fire-lines likely indicate that the line has no longer held. However, it is important to remember the spatial scale of these dots (satellite derived dots are somewhere in a 1 x 1 km pixel.  The heat dot is mapped in the middle of the pixel although the actual fire producing the heat might be in the upper NW corner of that pixel).  If the dots are derived from airplanes or drones, pixel sizes decrease dramatically.

I encourage everyone to use the DNR Fire Dashboard (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6cdda73cf6154949a1fae76ccb2900a0 ) and to acquire the 'free' app entitled 'Watch Duty' -- it covers western US and you can either notifications sent to your phone by either selecting a fire or a county or region.  In addition, you can subscribe to receive your county's emergency alerts.  Can be critical in a least three noted cases in the last decade where relatively small fires grew and moved either south or down valley at speeds faster than most of us can run.

September 23: Just on the doorstep of fantastic autumn colors, the Labor Mountain fire blows up over the weekend.  Highway 97 is closed and the North Fork of the Teanaway Road is also closed.  This is one of my favor places in the Cascades, I have visited here almost a 100 times between the summer of 1967 and May 2025 (class field trip to Iron Peak) with family, friends, and students from the UW.  You will find the DNR fire map for September 23, 2025 with colored dots that indicate the location of heat and its intensity by both the size of the dot and the intensity of red.  Peaks such as Miller, Earl, Navaho, Jester, and Iron Bear have been previously visited by me and now this fire!

I have added the most recent USFS closure map for the area impacted by the fire including the North Fork of the Teanaway as well as the current USFS Fire Extent map.  The black line is the 'containment' fire line.

Esmerelda Basin and Lake Ann

We arrived at the parking lot/trailhead at 11:00.There were probably 7 cars in the lot. We talked to a backpacker who had just hiked back from Lake Ann. Having hiked Lake Ingalls many times, this was my first hike to Esmerelda Basin. We hiked trail 1394, then took trail 1226.2 to Lake Ann. There was a creek which we traversed several times. This part of the hike was a slog for me. When we arrived at the top of the pass and looked down on Lake Ann we decided the lake was a little too algae ridden to hike down. It was raining most of the time on this hike.  There were several places where someone had left orange peel on the trail, and one place where someone left toilet paper. Honestly, Pack it In, Pack it Out. When we arrived at the trailhead/parking lot at 5:25 there were about 6 cars there. Weekday is definitely the time to hike up the Teanaway.

A Goldilocks trail: neither too long nor too short, too steep nor too easy, just right! Beautiful and varied scenery throughout, a mix of sun and shade. Wildflowers in full force right now, bugs minimal (although we gave ourselves a good spray at the start). Stunning views all along the way. Trail dusty but well-maintained and easy going. Small parking lot was full by the time we arrived a little before 10A on a summer Saturday, parked about 0.3 miles down the road. Most folks must have headed to Lake Ingalls, as this trail was uncrowded and quiet. No cell service in the larger area, download maps and check in with folks in advance of turning onto North Fork Teanaway Rd.

Five hours on the trail, at a easy pace, with a short lunch break at the top.

Our plan was Lake Ingalls but apparently we missed the Ingalls Way intersection. We hiked up to the pass and went down the switch back a little bit, turned back after watching a few mountain blue birds. Mt Daniel dominated the north view at the pass.

Flowers were beautiful almost all the way, berries were ripe and tasty. Many hummingbird were flying quickly among flowers, hovering at the thistles. They are so tiny with shining feathers. Chickadees and maybe gray catbirds were active in the forest along the creek.