My mom, dad, and I set out on the first Tuesday in August from the Boulder-De Roux trailhead for a four day (3 night) backpacking trip through trails in the Teanaway area. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the wildflowers were stunning...the most I have ever seen on a hike! Day 1: We started hiking at 9:30 up boulder-de roux to Gallagher Head Lake, stopping to take pictures in the many meadows. From the lake (which had abundant shooting star blooms along with some mosquitoes) we followed the jeep track for 1-ish miles to the fortune cookie pass trailhead. NOTE: when the jeep track splits (not shown on green trails map) stay to the right, and then continue going downhill after crossing a small stream. After the pass, we took the trail to Lake Ann. Only a small traverse of snow was required, and it was soft and very maneagable. The Lake itself was beautiful, with awesome reflections, meadows, and views. A stream of 10 horses and riders arrived in the evening from the outfitter, but they did a wonderful job of maintaining the peaceful atmosphere :) Mosquitoes were present, but not too worrisome. Day 2: Starting at 9:30 again, hiked out of Ann and turned left on the Esmerelda Basin trail. Lots more wildflowers, and a beautiful hike in lovely weather. About 1/2 mile from the parking lot, we turned left up trail toward Lake Ingalls (labeled Ingalls Way Trail). Took the hot and exposed trail up to the saddle, then continued over snow (once again soft and easy to follow) towards the lake. The lake is starting to thaw, but the basin is still full of snow. An ice bridge that had been used to circumnavigate the lake on the right broke under a man and his son (neither of whom were hurt) and is no longer safe to use. The left side of the lake basin could be crossed with care, but, not having ice axes and not feeling in the life-risking mood, we descended a ways and camped on some rocks below the lake. We encountered many mountain goats near the lake. At first they had us a bit nervous, but by the end of the night, we realized they were unafraid, but also not agressive. Mosquitoes were rather thick. Day 3: Broke camp and hiking by 7:11. After a leisurely breakfast in Headlight Basin and many pictures of goats, we decided to hike down the basin to Ingalls Creek Trail. After crossing the river and scouting around a bit, we emerged into the Ingalls Creek Valley. It was STUNNING. Amazing views of Stuart and its meadowed slopes. Wildflowers were everywhere and some almost as tall as me. The trail was very brushy in places, but SO worth it. We hiked a few miles and turned right on the Fourth Creek Trail. We ascended through lovely meadows and forest and LOTS of mosquitoes to the saddle at 5600ft. where we camped. Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes. We ate dinner as we literally ran around camp trying to avoid the voracious bugs and jumped in the tent at 6:30. *NOTE: If anyone hikes up Fourth Creek Trail, could you please check for my Vibram Five Finger shoes? From the Fourth Creek/Hardscrabble junction, go NW maybe 50-100 yds up a small rise. You may see where we cleared a tent area. The shoes are grey and green and sitting on a tree (probably 4ft. off the ground) 20-ish ft. South of the tent area. You can contact me at mikeesl@hotmail.com Thanks!............ Day 4: For our final day, we skipped breakfast to avoid mosquitoes and started hiking at 7:15. We continued down Fourth Creek Trail, turned Right on trail 1391, and then took a left on Iron Peak trail 1399. Really interesting terrain up to Iron Pass. Lots of green rock and shale. The view from the pass was wonderful (Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams?, the tip of Mt. Stuart, etc. etc.) and the mosquitoes less voracious, so we made coffee and took a rest before the final descent to the North Fork Teanaway road and the walk back to the car. I was so pleased with the hike! Wildflowers were everywhere (queen anne's lace, shooting starts, penstemon, lupine, wild rose, indian paintbrush, avalanche lillies, and many more), snow was very minimal, and the views were spectacular. The main difficulty were the mosquitoes, but I suppose they are the price you must pay for such glory.

Started at the end of the Salmon La Sac Road. Fabulous wild flowers, bugs no problem, easy crossings of creeks that run over trails, and spectacular views in all directions. A must see. Only problem is terrible traffic on I 90 returning, for no apparent reason.

Left the Esmerelda Basin trail head on a sunny Thursday at 10:00 am after a little more than 2 hour drive from Redmond. Trail was very good all of the way to Fortune Pass at 6,400 feet. Meadows are clear of snow. Patchy snow at the pass. The lake was 75% melted out with snow extending up from the lake about halfway up the 400' to the pass from the east side. Campsites at the lake were snow free and meadows around the lake were abloom with glacier lilies. There were several other hikers on the trail mid-week attesting to the popularity of this trail but only one other overnight party at the lake. After hiking out on Friday morning I climbed to Long's Pass from the same trail head to take in the breathtaking view of the west face of Stuart Mt.

Beautiful day for a hike. We weren't sure where we were going to go from this trailhead (we'd considered Long's Pass or Ingall's Lake) but we definitely made the right decision. The trial was in good shape and wasn't that difficult until a steep part up to the crest above Lake Ann. Some of the ground was frozen in the early part of the hike and on the way down had melted and turned to a bit of mud (though nothing major). Not much for flowers this late in the season and we didn't see a tremendous amount of larches or fall colors. However, the views were absolutely gorgeous on this clear day. Easily one of the best day hike I made this year. Massive crowds of hunter all along Teanaway Road, but not a worry once we got to the trailhead. We started pretty early (got to the trailhead before 9) so there weren't too many in the parking lot. Our trail wasn't too busy either (everyone must have been going up Long Pass or Ingalls). However, by 1 pm the trailhead was packed with cars and all along the road. Nuts!

In search of elevation (well, I *am* DestinationUp, after all), my friends J, J, and I, and the Wonder Pup, headed east to Esmeralda Basin. Our plan was to intersect the County Line trail (1226.2), and head up to the pass overlooking Lake Ann. The road is great, until you leave the gravel section. After that, expect miles of unavoidable potholes. It's much better uphill of Camp Wahoo. I was very grateful for my new-to-me 4Runner; this is not a place for a small car. There were a couple of graders out and about, so that's a good sign. Except for a few trail maintenance crews, doing their wonderfully appreciated work, the only other folks we saw were two people on very large mules. Let's just say that the 100-lb Wonder Pup was rather nervous. But since they trotted off before us, we literally had the place to ourselves. The trail is in great shape. The handful of streams were easy enough to cross on logs and rocks, and while there were a few places where the trail *was* the stream, it was easy to negotiate. There was so little snow on the trail that by the time I actually publish this (two days late) I'm sure it'll be gone. I do have to say that the wind was howling with an attitude. It started getting noticeable just above the intersection with 1226.2, and the gusts kept increasing in strength. My guess is somewhere in the 40mph range, which was enough to make us stop and crouch to reduce our profiles, at least on the steepest parts. We stopped on the unnamed pass, at 6400+ feet (our occasionally fluky GPS recorded high 6400's and very low 6500's). The campsite, to the left as you reach the crest, is a great place to have a bite, and shelter from the wind. A melted Lake Ann was a beautiful turquoise, and the Esmeraldas were glorious, but for me, the best part was having Mt. Ingalls right in our face.