Very Popular and Busy but Beautiful Scenery and Well Worth the Effort.
A great hike to Kendall Katwalk/Ridge & Gravel Lake. There had been several weeks of WTA trip reports siting downed trees and snow but we were fortunate that the snow had melted and the trees had been removed.
8/6/2016: Good weather and a small but capable group (reduced in size due to illness and conflicting obligations) consisting of the leader, a Basic student, and a Scramble student enjoyed the generally solid rock in the main stream canyon, the cool overhang of the rock shelter, and the bounteous berries of the upper meadow. The broken cloud cover tempered the heat of the afternoon, as did refills of water in the pools of the side canyon's still-trickling stream. We saw a magnificent mountain goat (or rather, he took ten minutes out of his busy day to pose for us on a rock pinnacle), collected handfuls of mountain goat wool, and made it out in good time for refreshing drinks in Gold Bar!
My trip to Mt Triumph got rained out so Alex and Jay invited me to find a partner and join them for a single day climb of Serpentine Arete. Rob joined us to make two teams of two.
Two day climb 6-7AUG successful good weather snow almost gone.
Flowers are now in prime time. We had a poor weather day but still enjoyed some of the show of color in the first benches in Spray park.
Foggy Seattle branch hike to Dege Peak on August 8 with a group of 7 hikers.
Great climb of a Cascade Classics peak with perfect weather, gorgeous route and adequate company.
Fine scramble to a rarely visited peak. Excellent weather allowed for stunning views of the Stuart Range.
I think this should be a T5, need to be comfortable on loose rock, only for advanced students and grads
Seattle branch hike to Crystal Peak on August 7 with a group of 9 hikers.
Steep but short hike to a fire lookout and great views of the weather cooperates.
Nice hike; great group. Most downed logs had been cleared from trail by the Forest Service. Mason Lake was completely melted out.
A great trip, weather was comfortable, a cooling mist at times keep us cool and enhanced the views. Followed standard route for Andrew and Tokaloo, 10 hours bike to bike with plenty of summit time.