This hike has been on my bucket list for about 10 years, and I’m so happy that I decided to finally do it!  My only regret is that I haven’t done it sooner. What a gorgeous, gorgeous trail. The larches are at full peak right now, and there are so many of them, especially between Lewis and wing lake that at this time the rest of the maple pass loop pales in comparison.   The boulder field between heather pass and wing lake was tedious with a few inches of snow, as long as we were careful and took it slow we were fine And it generally was not hard to follow the trail.
I was not expecting Lewis like to be as beautiful as it was. Wow! What a gorgeous color. Surrounded by larches, it was very striking.  To get to wing lake from Lewis lake  takes about 30 minutes at the trail is easy to follow.  This is probably my favorite section of the hike because he walked through stand after stand of beautiful golden larches, with views of of Lewis lake below.  There was such a peaceful serene energy here. Wing lake is also gorgeous, a place that I have wanted to backpack and see the larches, but I knew that it would be too cold, and I am glad that we did a day hike instead.  
Not too many people out on this beautiful day- One of my favorite things about this hike is the much smaller crowds that on the adjacent maple pass loop. The Boulderfield took us less time on the way back because it was mostly uphill  and you could move faster all in all, it was one of my favorite days in the mountains this year, and I can’t recommend this hike enough.    

Beautiful day going up to Black Peak. Ngie summited Black Peak as I only made the false summit as I was uncomfortable with the exposure on the last 55 vertical feet up to the summit . We met fellow trip reporter greystreet up at summit block, as they summited.

When pulled up to the trailhead a little past 9 am, there were cars already parked along Highway 20 on this brisk Thursday morning. It was well below freezing and the road into the parking area was slick with ice. It was quite slippery, so beware of that.

 It was quite brisk out as we started out for our hike up to Heather Pass. By the time we got up a ways we were shedding layers, as we got out of forest and into the sun. 
Once we got to Heather Pass we took a right on a side trail toward Wing Lake and Black Peak. The trail is roped in places to keep hikers off the side trails. Area is pretty fragile, so please stay on the main trail. After this beautiful meadow the route drops down about 600 ft on a huge talus field. There was a few inches of fresh snow here on the rocks, that made the boulders slick. This part was very tedious, as nearly every step had to be placed correctly. Now that it is fall, this part does not get any sun, as it is in the shade all day, so unless the area gets some rain, the snow is likely here to stay until late spring.

Once at Lewis Lake there is a trail that skirts around the lake, before heading steeply up around 1200 ft up thru some larches up to Wing Lake. This part was absolutely beautiful. This is where pics 1 and 4 were taken from.

Once past Wing Lake, it was pretty much a straight shot up the left side of a creek and then straight up a pretty steep scree field up to a saddle. I thought it was pretty straight forward, however one must be aware of rock fall. We experienced one of these, as a rock came loose about 50 ft to the right of me and came barreling down toward Ngie, who was below me. Luckily I saw it and yelled “ROCK”, and Ngie was able to scamper out of the way. Pretty scary situation. We both had helmets on, so bring one, and put it on, as you never know!!

At the saddle the views we took a right toward Black Peak and followed a climbers trail that went up the spine of the ridge to around 8400 ft where we ran into some steep rock gullies. I veered to the left and took this gully up. The rock was great and it was a pretty straight forward route up to the first false summit area. Views here were excellent. To get to the false summit which is around 55 vertical ft down from the main summit, you can either scramble up some super steep rock, or go around to the right(east), and head up that way. There is a nice flat spot here, with some amazing views. It was cool to look down the Fisher Creek valley to the north and see where I was earlier in the week, at Kitling Peak and Easy Pass.

I had seen pictures of the summit block when I had done research on this climb, and had though it was only about a 20 ft scramble. My GPS had the false summit at 55 ft below the top, and if you look at pic 2 with ngie on top, you can see how massive the summit block is. The get to the top, you can follow a path to the right with some exposure to ramp( Pic 3) that leads you up to the final summit scramble. I got up to the base of this ramp, but decided to turn around here. The scramble above the ramp looked exposed, and I don not like exposure, so I turned around here. The ramp looked to have a little protection from the sheer drop off to the right, but for me, it was not worth it, and besides the whole hike / climb so so fantastic and the views were just gorgeous.

Coming down was pretty straight forward, so we blasted thru this section all the way down to Lewis Lake. Going back up the 600 vertical ft over the snow covered talus to get back up to Heather Pass was no fun, We donned headlamps at Heather Pass and hiked out.

We got back to the lone car parked along Hwy 20 a little after 8 pm. 13.4 miles with 5600 ft gain. 

Gorgeous views this day.

Will write more later

kidzwonthike and I got up to Black Peak Thursday starting from Maple Pass Loop. We passed by Lewis Lake and Wing Lake up on our way up to the peak.

Conditions

We parked near the Maple Pass Loop Trailhead on SR-20. The temps were a chill 34 degrees at ~10:00 and the road was ice/frost covered on the edges. We both skidded a bit on our walk to the parking lot in our Trango Tech GTXs. The temps were around 30 degrees when we got back to the car at 20:45.

The Approach

Getting to Heather Pass

We started the hike up the trail around 10:45. Much of the way was cruiser trail with a bit of mud here and there, but no real ice concern that day really up to Heather Pass. We passed by 30+ people at various points up to the pass.

Crossing the Boulder Field

Getting down to Lewis Lake was a bit of a routefinding challenge earlier on in the day, since it involved traversing a long shaded boulder field from Heather Pass to Lewis Lake which was covered with a dusting of snow. We tried to lose as little elevation as possible getting towards the lake, but sometimes we needed to adjust because there were points where we had to get off the boulder field on to impacted vegetated areas (heather, conifers). Some of the folks wore traction; we brought poles and I hooked the arches of my boots on the edges to help stabilize/stick my steps.

Getting to Wing Lake

We crossed the outlet stream from Lewis Lake, went up to the lake side, and took a food/water/WC break, basking in the cold sunshine. I couldn't believe low to mid 40s sunshine could ever feel so warm! After taking a break we pushed around the north side of Lewis Lake, then uphill towards Wing Lake.

This part was a bit tricky navigation wise in areas because some of the path went over/next to boulder fields, and there were a variety of social trails that spread out various directions from folks getting off-course. We found a proper impacted path up to Wing Lake with a little bit of effort, which went up sod steps that--because of the foot traffic/terrain--had turned into slippery muddy steps, much like getting to/from Eldorado from the lower meadows was like back in July.

Getting to the Saddle via the Old Terminal Moraine

Once we got up to Wing Lake we went around the north side of the lake towards the old terminal moraine which ran down from the dying glacier near the saddle. We used the old terminal moraine as a handrail to our right, climbing the left side of the terminal moraine. At the top of the drainage we crossed over and started our ascent to the low point (saddle) which lead up the south ridge of the peak. The way up the saddle was to the right of the dying glacier; the second picture is a great representation of where to go. Given that it was an old terminal moraine, much of the rock from the bottom of the basin to the saddle was kitty litter scree. It wasn't too bad getting up it -- just a bit tedious at times -- and it was fun to come down (scree skiing).

That being said, partway up the moraine, a pumpkin-sized rock fell off of the summit ridge and careened towards me at a decent clip. If it wasn't for kidzwonthike yelling "rock!", I might not have reacted in time and gotten seriously injured 😬. We weren't sure what triggered the rockfall, but I wonder if it had to deal with the ground warming up and/or boulders coming loose due to softening/contracting soil. So, to be safe I tried to go closer to rock walls to use them as shields against potential rockfall and paid close attention to the south ridge.

To the False Summit

Once on the ridge, the way up is a bit tricky, but somewhat straightforward when the rock is clean: the gist of the next section up to the area directly below the false summit is to pick a gully and stick to it. I picked the gully to the left of the climber's trail drawn on CalTopo, hugging the wall, whereas kidzwonthike picked the gully to the left of the one I picked, following the right wall up. I ended up doing some minor class 2/3 scrambling up to the final ridge, whereas he did more of a class 2 walkup, but I felt more comfortable going up the gully I took, because it seemed like there was less exposure to rockfall overhead.

Once we got above the gullies, it was a relatively straightforward walk around the false summit. I climbed up the false summit, noticed the path to the true summit around the east (climber's right) side, so I hopped down and continued over to the east side of the summit block.

The False Summit to the True Summit

I looked at the east face/mini-gully and at first blush it seemed a bit difficult, so I went around the northeast side to see if I could find an easier path; there was a cairn marking the path around the right and the route on CalTopo suggested I should go off to the right.

I tried pushing up the mini-chimney/corner on the left side of the northeast face using pasting and stemming, but the moves were awkward and I kept on getting stuck in a really awkward position. I lost my balance, fell a few inches, and almost fell backwards, so I stopped to reassess the route I was trying to take. Given the poor runout, lack of protection, and probability of getting seriously hurt, I went back to the east face to try climbing up the east face instead.

The east face is certainly more of a classic class 4 rock climbing challenge with a couple easy 5 moves, but the runout was better, so I gave it a go.

Starting in the left mini-chimney, I used the hand and foot holds with an initial long stemming move (I have short legs 😅) to push up to the less protected shelf (less protected because the ledges were smaller). I zig zagged up 5'~10' worth of smaller holds to get to the exposed 15' (vert) class 2/3 ramp which ran up to the summit. Once I got up there I took some pictures/videos, waved to kidzwonthike standing on the false summit, then slowly started working my way down to the ledge below the summit block.

It took me a minute to find the holds I used, but I got down roughly following the previous process in reverse. I could have jumped the remaining 5' or used the shelves to the right instead of struggling with the long stemming move in the mini-chimney, but I didn't want to accidentally tumble off the side of the mountain and/or break/sprain something in the fall, requiring SAR.

On the way down, kidzwonthike and I both took the gully he came up, because the grade/descent was easier than the one I came up.

The scree skiing I did from the saddle to bottom of the moraine basin was pretty primo too -- probably as good as the scree skiing down Cannon Mountain/Enchantment Peak ☺️.

Once we got down to the lakes, we went as quickly as we could across the boulder field to beat sunset. We got up Heather Pass just in the nick of time, flipped on our headlamps, then walked down the Maple Pass Loop Trail to the trailhead.

Vegetation Info

When we went the larches and huckleberry bush fall colors were in peak condition; the assortment of colors was fantastic, and the larches had plenty of needles on them 😊.

Crazy Day Hike w KR. Did not make it to Wing lake as ran out of time after attempting it post Maple Pass (clockwise). Need to dig out Stats

Did a significant loop in this area, much of it cross country but wanted to leave a few notes regarding the popular portions of the loop I did.

Started at Heather Maple Pass TH. Got there about 6 AM knowing that it would be early enough to beat the crowds.  Lot had a handful of cars with a couple groups getting ready.  Judging by the amount of cobwebs I took to the face, I was the first one headed up the trail.  As many have noted, larches are turning but many are still green.  Foliage is brilliant reds, oranges and yellows.  Trail is in good shape.

From Maple Pass, I traveled to Last Chance Pass then down into the Woody Creek Drainage.  I then climbed up to the saddle south of Black Peak above Wing Lake.  This is entirely cross country travel and I recommend it only for experienced individuals.

I then took the normal route from Wing Lake back to Heather Pass.  This is snow free, larches are just hitting their stride and should be good for another ten days.  If you haven't been on this route before, it does include talus hopping and the trail can be difficult to follow at times. Be prepared.

Two notes:  I was in this area for a few days and by mid morning, the parking for Heather Maple Pass spills out onto Hwy 20 even mid week.  Finally, inclement weather is approaching Sunday evening so it is very possible there will be snow on this route by Monday morning.