Dayhike up Lost Creek Ridge to Round Lake overlook & Point. 5860 on 11.17.23
ROAD: Bumpy and rather potholed once you hit the gravel section of the Mt. Loop (we came in from the north). AWD and some clearance helped ease the bumps. No other cars at the TH, and no facilities either.
TRAIL: In good shape with a few blowdowns to step over, duck walk under or go around. A steady climb through the forest on well-graded switchbacks took us up over 2000' of gain to the Gap. The trail was snow-free for quite a ways before compact snow and ice took over. We put on microspikes sometime below Bingley Gap.
Once at the Gap, we headed right and eventually put on snowshoes as we climbed and the snow deepened. Peekaboo views began to tease us as we headed on, and we finally broke out into more open terrain with beautiful views especially of Mt. Pugh and Sloan dominating the skyline.
A note of caution: we had to traverse across several steep slopes as we proceeded along the ridge. These slopes could be avalanche-prone with deeper snow or in more unstable conditions.
We eventually reached where the trail would cut up towards the lake overlook and broke trail that way, eventually ending up on the ridge with a view down to the semi-frozen Round Lake.
A snack later, we decided to keep going up along the ridge towards the next high spot at around 5860'. We were rewarded with a great view of the surroundings, including Glacier Peak which had remained hidden until then.
We had debated trying to make it to Breccia Peak, but at that point we knew it would be a very late and dark hike out if we kept pushing on, so we retraced our steps and made it out before sunset instead.
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