Started at 8:30, only 2 other cars in the parking lot. A beautiful day, but cold. Unfortunately no dogs allowed on the Ingalls Lake trail so we ended up on 1394 around Esmerelda Peak. Took a short, steep detour up to the saddle at 6400' where we could look down at Lake Ann and the surrounding Larch trees. It was still in the shadow of Ingalls Peak and quite icy (even though there was no snow) so we decided not to descend to the lake. Retraced our steps to 1394 then foolowed it down to a 4WD road (301). After a little over a mile of reclibming on this we reached Gallagher Head Lake. Then descended on 1392 to the road. Had to run 1.6 miles on the road back to the car. 50 cars or so now! 13.6 mile circle. ONly some mud coming down, overall, very nice loop.

We opted to do our first overnighter at Esmeralda after waking up and seeing nothing but wet, wet, and wetter before leaving the house. Original plan was Goat Flats. We thought Eastern Washington would be better. A friend had been there in the last month or so, when WWA was socked in with soaking wetness. We've been planning an overnighter for awhile, and dagnabbit, we were gonna do it. We got to the trailhead and started up with our big packs at 11:45. The trail is wide and generally easy to the 5900ft junction with the Lake Ann trail. Beware the numerous horse ploppings (why do we have to pack out everything, but horses can poo at will? Horse bags for all!) We opted to go up to the pass at 6400ft. We made it to the pass on the way to Lake Ann and set up camp around 3:45. Then it started to rain. It didn't stop until after midnight. Two hikers and one big dog cramped in a tent all night because the rain pounded, the wind howled (40mph), and the tent got soaked. No one really slept. We left at 6:45am and ate breakfast at the car. It's a nice trail, except for the poooooo everywhere, but if you go for an overnighter don't go to the pass; stay down in the valley just below the pass. Less windy. Summer is definately over and we were a week late.

Friday was a beautiful day in the Teanaway area, but we had to work! So we went in search of larch on Saturday, starting with sunshine and ending in low clouds, but no rain. Lake Ann is a lovely small lake on the west side on Ingalls Peak. It starts on Esmeralda Basin trail #1394. After 2.7 miles you reach the juntion with trail 1226.2. From here it is a short climb to the pass above Lake Ann. The lake was totally frozen over, and the larch are about 2 weeks away from their prime. The snow was deeper than we expected (8-10 inches) near the lake. We had hoped to summit Fortune Peak on the way out (HP 7382), but with no visibility we lost our enthusiasm. Two years ago we camped at the lake and explored the area to the north. This makes either a nice, short backpack trip or dayhike. Distance: almost 8 miles RT Elevation Gain: 2600ft.

The earth is back in its correct orbit and Sadie is back on the trail. Little jaunts around Discovery Park are simply not enough to sooth the savage trail-beast in her 4-paw drive body. For today's little hike, Sadie picked Lake Ann - for a couple of reasons: #1, it's a trail she wasn't banned from; and #2, she wanted to see some larch/tamarack too. Sadie wasn't disappointed. Starting out from Seattle at 6:00 a.m.(!) on a perfectly good Sunday to sleep in, Jim pulled up - loaded his gear into the Highlander and off we went to pick Gary up at the Issaquah Park and Ride. Promptly at 6:22 a.m. we arrived - it was still dark, what were Jim and Gary thinking? Anyway, a quick fuel stop at the local Starbucks and off we head across the mountains - even though the day was supposed to be lovely in Seattle. We arrived at the Esmerelda Basin trailhead about 8:15 a.m. - quite a few cars in the parking lot - but most seemed to be ""overnighters"" - since there was ice (yes, ICE) on most of the cars. The thermometer read 32! We were on the trail by 8:30 a.m. and set a quick pace to keep warm. Just shy of the trail junction to Lake Ann, we took a quick break to shed some clothes. No real larch siting yet. The trail up to the pass above Lake Ann was a steady (but short) uphill - quite a bit of frost on the trees and ground. Once at the Pass, we saw that the sun was just beginning to peek over the top of Fortune Peak and shine down on the Lake and all of the glorious, blazing Larch! They were on fire with color. But that was about the only thing aroung that looked warm! Lake Ann was frozen over! This would not be a swimming day for Sadie. On the way down to the Lake, we ran into a couple coming up who had camped overnight. It was ""Trail Pair"" - regular contributors to WTA. They said it hadn't been particularly pleasant weather-wise the day before - and this morning it was very, very cold, foggy and then cloudy. They left too soon! The sun broke over the peak and felt so good. We stopped for several pictures - then headed back up towards the pass, because our plan was to scramble up Fortune Peak from the climbers' trail spur from the pass. Fearing it might be a little slippery, because there was still frost on the rocks and a light dusting of new snow, we gingerly made our way up the ridge. It really wasn't too tough (see Jim and Sadie heading to the summit) - only a couple of places of exposure - and a few hundred feet from the pass. It was lovely on top - no summit register - but a nice area for a lunch. And the views - - - oh, they are worth the scramble. We could see over to Ingalls Lake and the basin - filled with lovely, vibrant Larch. We guessed that most of the traffic at the parking lot was from the folks heading to Ingalls. Mt. Daniels and Hinman had (what seemed to be) tons of snow on them - this may be a good snow year after all. We could see south to Mt. Rainier and north to Glacier. Straight across from us was Mt. Stewart. After a leisurely lunch, down we headed. Straight down! Dropping about 2000' to the Fortune Creek Pass trail below. Sadie thought this downward romp was great fun. Then back to the car by 3:00 p.m. and back to Seattle by 5:00 p.m. Clouds were moving in - so our timing was perfect. This is a GREAT alternative for those Larch-seeking folks. Be sure and put it on your calendar for next year - the trees are pretty much at peak now.

The parking lot was over-full, so it stood to reason that Ingalls Lake would be crowded. Opted for Lake Ann instead. The Esmeralda Basin Trail is a moderate to easy grade. The County Line Trail is fairly steep to the high point at 6400 feet and down to Lake Ann. There are several trees across the trail. Pearly everlasting, cow parsnip, paintbrush, harebell, heather, buttercup and columbine were seen. Pikas were heard. Western meadow fritillary butterflies were about. No bugs. Scattered clouds and moderate temperatures.