Alpine Scramble - Mount Howard & Mount Mastiff

Meeting place and time 6:00 AM at Brickyard Park and Ride in Kirkland

Leader's notes Note that I put this down as a Moderate pace, but it is 13 miles with 5000 gain, so you must be in good shape and prepared to keep up a steady pace. Note also, this is a loop trip. So there is no possibility to stop along the way and wait for the group to return. You have to be prepared to hike the whole way.

Route:
We will drive Highway 2 11.4 miles past the summit to a side road on the left that goes to the Merrit Lake Trail Head (3000'). We will follow a trail northwest to Cresent Lake (5460'). There we will filter water. We then scramble north up to Mount Howard, then east along the ridge to Mount Mastiff. The south east along the ridge near bump 6125 and continue along the ridge east and down to Merrit Lake. We will dip our toes and filter some more water. From there we follow the trail back to the cars.

Gear Notes:
Bring a filter if you have one. I will bring mine, but it would be great to have a couple of them.
Do bring your Ice Axe and helmet, but you can skip the scramble harness.
You should also bring some bug spray. Hopefully that won't be needed, but I heard that a few miles west of there had bad bugs last weekend.

TOPO:
Here is a link to a printable map of the area: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php?ll=47.820488,-120.934796&t;=t2&z;=14&label;=off&coord;=latlng

I would encourage you to print this map. Once zoomed in to show the scrample route and once zoomed out to show the trails. See the tips on the upper right corner of the map for how to print.

Where/When to meet: 6:00 AM at Brickyard Park and Ride in Kirkland. Just west of I-405 at exit 22. This is 1 mile south of the SR522 interchange.

NOTE NOTE NOTE: SR-520 is scheduled to be closed this weekend between I-405 and Montlake. Don't go there!