We started out at the Foggy Dew trailhead this morning around 8:30. The trail up to Merchant Basin is in great shape. The bushes along the trail are in various shades of red and gold. When you reach the basin, you a thrust into a larch wonderland. We took the spur to Sunrise Lake, and were blown away by the sheer number of larches. I’d say 75% of them are at their peak currently, and the remaining 25% aren’t far behind them.
After a long lunch at the lake, we headed down from the lake, and up the Sawtooth Ridge trail to Conney Lake. We were blown away by the number of larches at Sunrise Lake, but it honestly has nothing on Cooney Lake. The trail down to the lake passes through hundreds of larch trees, and they are almost all completely golden. It was beyond beautiful. We hung out at the lake for a little while, and then took the Martin Lakes trail back down to connect with the Foggy Dew trail, and then back to the trailhead.
Total mileage was somewhere around 19, with 6,000ft of gain, for the day. We saw maybe 10 people (3 on dirt bikes, 3 on mountain bikes, 2 hikers, and 2 next to a tent at Cooney Lake) the entire day. We also saw three bears. The smoke was pretty bad, but the larches made us ignore it as much as we could.
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