Did a three-day trip to see some larches before the needles fall. Car camped at South Navarre CG then drove to Summer Blossom #1258 TH. Took Summer Blossom trail to Sunrise Lake and camped there. Then day hiked through Merchants Basin on the Merchants Basin/Foggy Dew Creek trail to the top of Angels Staircase, dropped down to Cooney Lake, had lunch, and returned to Sunrise via the Martin Creek trail. The next day I departed Sunrise back to the Summer Blossom trail, and turned right to connect with Summit Trail via Deadman's Pass. Then took Summit Trail back to its southern terminus at the South Navarre CG, dropped my pack (hey, I was tired!), did a 2.5 mile road walk to collect my truck at Summer Blossom TH, and returned for my pack.
Details:
Factor in the altitude (6000'-8000') when planning this trip! I live at 500 feet above sea level, and this trip kicked my behind. I had a much more challenging itinerary planned with mileage that I thought was well within my capability, but a few hours in I realized it was not feasible so changed my plans on the fly. Luckily, this area has a lot of trails to choose from so it was easy to come up with a plan B.
Day 1 : Summer Blossom trail to Sunrise Lake: Lots of elevation gain and loss that is belied by the relatively modest net elevation gain of 900 feet. On the way to Sunrise the maps show an intersection with Navarre Way #424 (an option to descend to the lower portion of the trail network), but I couldn't find it. Ironically, the next day I passed by the other end of trail #424 where it connects to the Martin Creek Trail, and it was sell signed and looks like like an established trail. So it might be easier to follow from that end. The next intersection is the unsigned, but marked with a cairn, trail that climbs up to the ridge above Sunrise Lake. The trail then drops down into the lake basin. It easy to follow until the bottom third, when it becomes lost at times in the scree even though there are some cairns. But if you just pick your down to the edge of the water there is a lakeside trail that goes most of the way around. If I had to do it again I would make a GPS track on the way down, because I had trouble finding the route again through the steep scrub and scree on the way back up when I left Sunrise the third day. Gaia GPS shows a nonexistent, long, descending traverse on the bottom portion of the trail to the lake. I tried hard to find this trail and couldn't.
Day 2: Day hike
Departed Sunrise Lake to the north and ascended the north side of Merchants Basin to the eastern end of the Angel Staircase #1259.32 trail. Trail was easy to follow (Gaia says its the Merchants Basin trail, but Green Trails and the trail sign say it's the Foggy Dew Creek #417 trail) and great views from the ridge. The sign at the top is confusing and makes it look like a four way intersection when it is not. After taking in the ridgetop views I took the Cooney Lake trail #434 down into the basin. Much easier to follow then Sunrise. Cooney is beautiful with several campsites, a horse camp (including a highline horse tether that I mistook for a bear wire that was hung way too low), and a vault toilet. The toilet is getting pretty full. It's also exposed and in view of the entire camping area, but luckily I was the only person there! Departed Cooney to the north and circled back around to Sunrise on the Martin Creek trail #429. Martin Creek was a mellow descent all the way to the intersection with Merchants Basin/Foggy Dew Creek trail, where the work to regain altitude back to Sunrise began.
Day 3: return to truck
Climbed back out of the Sunrise Basin (ugh), and dropped back down to the Summer Blossom Trail. Turned right to continue on Summer Blossom to where it ends at Summit Trail. Took Summit Trail to South Navarre CG. Map note: There were a few places on Gaia GPS where the map didn't match what the trail was doing. I don't know if the map was wrong or the trail was rerouted but they didn't match. Most importantly, the intersection with the Safety Harbor trail is several hundred yards to the southeast of where Gaia thinks it is. This had me convinced that this portion of the Summit Trail had been obliterated by fire and that I was going to have the take the Safety Harbor Creek Trail back to its TH--a detour that would have added several miles and a few thousand feet of elevation change to my trip! Luckily, after I resigned myself to my fate I continued on the trail and after a few minutes came to the intersection that kept me on the Summit Trail. Whew! Then did the last ascent of the trip to climb out of the Safety Harbor Creek valley and to the South Navarre CG. Dropped my heavy pack and roadwalked 2.4 miles to my truck with a day pack, then drove back to get my pack.
Roads: South Navarre CG and Summer Blossom TH can both be accessed from the east or the west. Google Maps may want you to access from the west via Manson, but I understand this route is the sketchier of the two. And the route from the east was plenty sketchy for me. It's a narrow, typically rocky forest road with very few turnoffs to pass, and portions of it hug the hillside with a steep dropoff. It was unnerving to have the dropoff only a few feet away from my drivers side door, especially when there were road humps or rocks on the right side that tilted the truck towards the abyss. Ack! Luckily I did not encounter any other vehicles.
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