Lake Ingalls — Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019

Pretty good info from recent trip reports on most of the trail, just posting since I continued to the lake. Made it to the trailhead at 8:30am and was the fourth car there. Amazing sunlit larches on the drive in! Made it up to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness border within two hours and then it took me another hour to get to the lake. There's a pretty good boot path all the way to the lake but you do need to pay close attention to it in some places, especially if you're new to how the trail moves through Headlight Basin and then cuts up to the lake. People have definitely been post-holing up to their knees or thighs (and I joined the ranks a couple times today!). I brought gaiters but didn't end up putting them on - the snow stuck to itself so well that even when I fell through I didn't get any snow in boot and it wasn't getting my pants wet. The sun that was forecast for today disappeared after sunrise - Headlight Basin was totally socked in by the time I got up there and even got some very light snowy/rain drizzle precip for a bit. The larches are kind of a burnt orange right now and still very lovely. Mount Stuart was nowhere to be seen today, although it looked like it might be opening up as I was heading down. I only saw three other hikers on my way up and shared the lake and had a lovely chat with one of them. Saw somewhere between 10-15 people coming up as I descended, so all told a pretty quiet day for Ingalls. I did put my microspikes on to head down - starting at the lake and then only took them off a bit below the junction with Longs Pass. At that point in the day the snow was fairly slushy along the trail but they definitely helped in a few places, and of course just for peace of mind. Made it down in about 2.5hrs but I definitely stopped to chat with those coming up! All told a lovely yet unexpectedly gray day!