Arrived at the White River parking lot at 8 thur. morning. Hiked to Dege Pk. Met one trail runner and until we hit the Sunrise parking lot on the way down-nobody. The weather was stupendous. The views from Dege are really  extraordinary. George and I have hiked most of the trails in the park at one time or another but have never been to Dege. The crowds and how good could a close in hike be? Well worth the effort. We figure that  a person could hike the  3rd Burroughs and Dege and have some of the best views in the park.

You have a 360 view from the peak. The Governors, Tamanos, all the major features of The Mountain, Grand Park, Freemont Lookout, The Burroughs, Huckleberry  Basin,  back of Green Park and Marcus Pk. and the Palisades and a great shot of Sunrise and Clover Lakes, Brown Pk. Mt., Adams and a lot more. We spent over an hour at the top and just soaked in the views and silence.

Gotta love Sunrise after the road closure. The Burroughs White River Loop and the hike to Freemont, which we did last year along with Dege are now some of our favorite hike. We start early (not Mary&Mollie early), and almost always have these hikes to ourselves until the return trip.

Today I took a sunrise hike to 3rd Burroughs hoping for the last day of probable solitude before the road opens.  

I started on the Glacier Basin trail.  Headed the 1.7 miles to the Burroughs Mtn trail junction.  Then headed up to the junction that comes out between Burroughs 2 and 3.  I took a left here and headed up to the 3rd Burroughs.

There is minor snow and one blowdown prior to the turn to 3rd Burroughs.  Nothing difficult.  There are the two sections of snow on the portion of the trail up to 3rd Burroughs that are always the last to melt every year.  This year is no different.  See AlpsDayTripper's report from yesterday with pics.

As in Christy’s report on Wednesday, the snow is somewhat easy to follow if you know where the trail should be.  There are a few foot paths.  Most don’t follow the trail.  Easiest thing to do if you don’t know the trail, is to take out your navigation of choice and try to stick to the trail. Snow was soft this morning and made for somewhat of a slog over these two short 150ft sections.

Once up on 3rd Burroughs, I could see the goat herd hanging out just below  3rd Burroughs.  Caught some pics on my way down.

I decided to take the Sunrise Rim Trail to the WT for my way back.  

There is one super sketchy 100 ft section about half way down the Sunrise Rim trail towards the WT.  I debated turning back as the slide would be a long way down.  Instead, I used poles and made sure each step I made was sure footed before I took my next step.  The snow was pretty soft this morning.  Better than ice.  Still made the crossing sketchy.

Wildlife:  The resident goat herd and the resident marmot that hangs around the 1st Burrough.  The marmot was feasting on all of the phlox flowers.  Then posed for me and went back to eating his breakfast.

Flowers:  Not sure of all of the species.  Definitely phlox, mountain heather and fleabane in the subalpine area.  Yellow and white avalanche lilies and magenta and red paintbrush along the Sunrise Rim Trail.  There were some cool purple blooms up on 3rd Burrough.  I would need AlpsDayTripper’s help in identifying.

I didn’t see anyone all morning until my trip back down the last two miles of the WT to the parking lot.  Once in the parking lot after my hike, whew!!!  Summer is in full swing at the WRCG.  When I parked this morning, I was one of 5 cars.  When I left at 10am, the lot was full with cars parked for as far as the eyes could see down the road.

Other heads up as other trip reporters have mentioned, 410 has a ton of elk and deer activity in the mornings.  I saw my 3rd elk/deer car accident this morning in as many weeks.  People have been ok.  Cars and wildlife not so much.

It's a weird melt this year.  Even after the recent cold snap and fresh snow dusting, melt in the Sunrise area is close to a month ahead of last year, based on comparing size and location of remaining snow patches with when I climbed Skyscraper Mountain on July 24 last year.  The Fremont Lookout trail is bare.  Usual couple of snow patches left approaching Frozen Lake from the south, but they were straightforward to cross.

I didn't hike the Sourdough Ridge trail, but from a distance it appears to have only a few small snow patches left.

Also from a distance: the usual snow patch approaching Skyscraper Pass is still present, and likely to be one of the cruxes for folk attempting early season WT circuits.

I passed someone coming down from a Glacier Basin loop, who said the trail up from Glacier Basin to Burroughs was in good shape, and top of the Burroughs mostly melted, but getting down from Burroughs to Frozen Lake was gnarly.

Saw marmots, mountain goats, and a mama bear with two cubs.

I only saw a few other people, but disappointingly, those I did were not practicing good LNT. I'd hope that those getting up here before the road opens are at least reasonably well informed hikers, but seems not. I saw more than one person trampling alpine vegetation by skirting around a snow patch even though there was a clear and safe boot path across it, plus one standing on flowers to get a close-up photo of Shadow Lake. Do better, people!

I went up to Dege Peak for sunrise and solitude.  Total success.

WR to Sunrise is a piece of cake.  The trail is 99.9% snow free.  The waterfall was barely flowing and was a simple rock hop.

The short little jaunt from the WT through the Sunrise parking lot (Sunrise Rim trail) up to Sourdough Ridge is snow free.

Sourdough Ridge is another story.  The trail is still 50% covered in snow and starts within ¼ mile of turning east from the main Sunrise trail.

This morning it was compacted, intermittent and icy.  Without a boot path, it did make it a tricky traverse this morning.  Luckily there is a goat trail on top of the snow that follows the trail.  I utilized the goat path today.  I was putting on and taking off my microspikes frequently.  I found them useful every time I hit a high snow pack that I had to climb up and then off of.  See pic below.

If the snow softens during the day, the trail would be much easier.

Palisades Lakes looks fairly snow free.  At least up to Clover Lake.

I watched three goats hanging around the north side of Antler Peak.  

It looks like it might be a pasqueflower super bloom this year.  Unfortunately, anything that had flowered before this most recent cool down looks frost damaged.  It will be interesting to see if the majority of pasqueflower continues into seedheads this year.

Only saw one person heading up when I was almost back to my car.

Hiked from White River Campground to Sunrise Camp and from there to Frozen Lake. Scattered snow patches just before Sunrise Camp, but easily traversable. Some snowfields between Sunrise Camp and Frozen Lake. But about 50% of the trail on that section is melted out and visible so navigation is easy. Microspikes were useful but not at all essential if you have a hiking pole. Another hiker went on from Frozen Lake to Mt Fremont Lookout and told us that section was snow free.

Note that tonight temperatures will drop to freezing on this trail so some of the snow and runoff will turn to ice.