Climbs of Lake Mountain and Lost Peak with base camp at Lake of the Woods for four nights. Approach via Monument Creek Trail from October 4-8th 2025.
**LOST PEAK needs a new notebook for the summit register - please bring one up if you can!**
When a five-day window of good weather appears in early October, you take the chance and go on a larch march!
ROAD: We rolled past the Saturday morning Heather-Maple Pass madness Hwy 20 and on to the beautifully quiet Monument Creek Trailhead, making it fine in the Nissan Versa Note. The TH was a little further down the road than Google Maps thinks it is. Sadly, no facilities were available at the trailhead.
DAY 1 - MONUMENT CREEK TO LAKE OF THE WOODS:
The trail was in great shape, meandering through the woods with some gentle ups and downs for the first 3.75 miles until we reached Eureka Creek. We filled up on water here, as we knew it would be the last water source until we reached Lake of the Woods.
After crossing the Eureka Creek bridge, we began our switchbacking climb upwards to gain the ridge. It was steady, but thankfully not ridiculously steep except for one short section of steep loose sand and dirt (I think it was between 4,800' and 5,000'). A lot of the ridge itself was fairly gentle walking.
There were options for campsites at 4,500' and 6,200'.
We began the traverse to Pistol Pass at around 6,500'. I think there was more downhill on this section than uphill, until we reached the final climb to the pass where we crested to moody views of a basin full of golden larches. Weather had moved in at this point, and we had climbed to the pass in light hail.
It still took a minute to make the final mile or so from the pass, dropping 600' down from Pistol Pass and climbing back up another 200' to Lake of the Woods, where we hastily set up our tent as the precipitation intensified. It started coming down hard just as we flung ourselves and our packs into the shelter as dusk fell.
Tracked around 12 miles and 5,100' of gain from TH to camp.
DAY 2: LAKE MOUNTAIN
We allowed ourselves a nice snooze and slept in while we waited for the gusting winds of the night to die down and for temps to rise to more acceptable levels (my water bottle had started freezing overnight in my vestibule).
We eventually headed out for Lake Mountain in the late morning, heading NW from the lake, first through forest that eventually dumped us into a boulder field. We hopped up the boulders and scrambled up just below the E ridge of Lake Mountain. A dusting of fresh snow lingered in spots, but did not pose us any trouble. We enjoyed the larchy views and read through the summit register (sadly it looks like it got waterlogged at some point), before retracing our route back to camp where we hung out for the afternoon.
It was a pretty relaxed day, only about 1,600' of gain and a little more than a mile from camp to summit.
DAY 3: A MONUMENTAL BAIL
We rose in the dark the next morning and left camp just before sunrise, heading West towards the saddle on the ridge between Lake Mountain and Pistol Pass. We had planned to traverse around and down into the next valley to pick up Monument's south ridge and take it to the summit.
The sunrise was beautiful as we picked our way through another rock field and then steeply up to the ridge. From there, the side-hilling traverse began and it was tedious and steep - lots of loose rocks and dirt that required careful and precise footing (yes, I was having Mesahschie flashbacks lol).
We were crawling along at a really slow pace and just not in the mood for it. I knew that if morale was already low this early in the day, the return trip would be even more tiresome and tedious. With both of us also nursing assorted injuries, we decided to just call it for the morning and save our energies for a push up Lost Peak the next day.
We retreated to the saddle, had a snack and enjoyed the views there for a while before returning to camp for yet another chill afternoon siesta.
DAY 4: LOST PEAK
Once again, we were up and breakfasted before dawn. We headed north from the lake through fairly friendly forest towards the saddle at 6,890'. From there, we dropped down through large boulders and larches and launched into the worst of the bushwhacking.
The woods were pretty thick (I think between 6,700'-6,250' or so was the worst of it) and we floundered our way down through vegetation and picked our way through and around deadfall with some cursing and grumpiness. Things eventually opened up a bit, and then more so as we worked our way down into the burn zone, and from there we dropped NE towards Monument Creek with much less struggle.
We did find a small stream on our route as we descended.
Vegetation thickened along the edge of Monument Creek, and we kind of just picked a random spot to fight through the bushes and fireweed that was taller than me (how bad is it to inhale a lungful of fireweed fluff?) and prayed that the creek would be passable where we popped out. Thankfully, it was.
It was another steep brushy climb out on the other side, and once I had climbed out I tried to find a slightly better spot to get back down to the stream so I could top off my water. After a bit of awkward maneuvering and some slightly wet shoes, I managed to get the water I needed, and we were back on our merry way.
We continued on our way, plodding slowly up the flanks of Lost Peak. I angled a bit further north to begin with, trying to get around a section of thicker deadfall via some grassy meadows, before we entered the fairly open burn and trended NE upwards.
It was a fairly straightforward slog as we climbed over 3,000' from the creek, until we got nearer to the top, and the terrain transitioned into a tedious, somewhat unstable boulder pile. We picked our way up the rocks and the ridge eventually flattened out into a more gentle rise for the last few hundred feet to the top.
The wind was blowing pretty hard, so we sat in a tiny bivy spot to have our summit snacks and read the register (once again, the register notebook was full. Please do bring a replacement if you're heading up!).
We left the summit the way we had come, making our way back down (although for some reason my partner took us right through the thick of the initial lowest section of blowdowns I had avoided on the way up). We did take a slightly better line crossing Monument Creek and back up through the bushwhack, although it was still an annoying few hundred feet of struggle.
We clocked in about 8.5 miles RT and 5,300' of gain, 10 hours and 40 mins for the day, with about 45 minutes of that time spent on the summit.
DAY 5: GOODBYE, LAKE OF THE WOODS
I decided to head up to Pistol Pass to watch the sunrise on our final morning. I packed up camp shortly after 5 am and made the slog back up to the pass. The rising sun painted the clouds a dreamy pink and lit the larches up in bright gold, a beautiful and serene end to our five-day trip into the Pasayten Wilderness. It was a fine spot for a cup of coffee and several Advil, as I knew the descent would be rough on my already sore knee.
Thankfully, the descent went as smoothly as could have been hoped for with injured feet, knees and backs between the two of us (although there was more uphill than I remembered, and also more rocky sections than I remembered - that's always the case, isn't it?).
Five days in the wilderness amidst thousands of golden larches, two Bulger summits, and we only saw three other humans the entire time. Plus, we got to enjoy the unprecedented experience of setting up a tent in one spot for four whole nights - something we'd never accomplished before! I'd say this was a success of a trip, despite our one summit bail.
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