Scatter Lake, Abernathy Peak — Saturday, Jun. 24, 2017

The good: the views from the summit of Abernathy Peak were some of the best that I've ever seen, and there were beautiful wildflowers all along the trail 

The bad: pretty much everything else 

Ok, let me start from the beginning. As the previous report states, there is a small washout about two miles from the trailhead. However, it is more like a creek just coming across the road with a small pothole. We saw a Honda Civic make it across, so I'm assuming pretty much anyone could. 

The Scatter Lake trail is dry, dusty and very buggy. It is also very overgrown in several sections. We saw a good bit of cougar poop, and one largish bone on the trail. If you decide to hike this trail, start early - like 5am. We came in from Bellingham, so we didn't get started until about 1pm, and it was miserable. 4 miles in, you will encounter a large creek crossing. There is no way to keep your feet dry at this point, so just enjoy the cold water on your super hot feet. We both had trail runners on, and the water came slightly over our ankles. Slightly after this creek crossing, you will begin to encounter patchy snow that is melting quickly. About a quarter of a mile from the lake, the trail is completely covered by snow, but is still easy to navigate. The lake is right at 5 miles in, with 3,869ft of gain.

Once we got to the lake, we hung out for quite awhile, hoping the sun would start setting a little bit. The lake was about halfway frozen over and you could see a lot of little fish swimming around. After lounging, we picked a route up the basin, and started working our way up. If you look at the picture of the lake that I uploaded below, we stayed to the right of the large rock island on the way up the basin. We came down on the opposite side of the rock island this morning, and I think that route was a little more mellow. Before too long, we reached the top, and jaunted up the ridge to the summit. From the trailhead, it was 5.63 miles to the peak, with roughly 5,100ft of gain. We spent the night up on the ridge, and then worked our way down this morning. When we stopped at the lake to fill up our water, we saw two tents, but we didn't see another person until getting back to Twisp. 

Gear used: poles, lightweight trail crampons, ice axe. If going up to the peak once the snow melts out, I would definitely recommend bringing a helmet.