Cover Photo: Mount Maude Looming
With a decent night’s rest, Kleon and I woke earlier today to begin our climb for Mount Maude. We hit the trail at about 8:45 with another excellent weather day ahead. We again took the same route to 7FJ, but this time, we continued past the cutoff and made our way to the saddle, connecting with the Carne High Traverse. This trail was quite beautiful, with fall colors in full display, and we crossed several washouts resembling old moraines.
With a short break at the saddle, we began our traverse to Freezer Pass. The trail skirted the rocky block of Mount Maude’s steep ridge.
The views expanded across the valley of Phelps Creek as we ascended.
We crested Freezer pass and met Glen and Gerhardt as they descended from Maude. They got an early start and were much faster than us. At Freezer Pass, we could finally see Ice Lake. We were above the tree line, and this side of the pass was rather desolate.
More views – you can make out Kleon below as he progresses his way up to meet me. This gives you a perspective of how big the ramp-up to the summit actually is.
There were more fall colors as we encountered more sub-alpine terrain on the descent to camp. Kleon decided that he should run ahead as I was too slow so he could break down camp and speed our descent. I reluctantly agreed as I was unsure of his navigation skills. As luck would have it, he took a wrong turn, descended about 300 feet down a wrong trail, and had to bushwhack up a gully to reconnect with me and find the trail. I found another gear and surged ahead, making good time to camp, knowing Kleon was on the right trail. After breaking down most of the camp, I heard a female voice calling my name. A young woman named Amanda was coming down from the Carne High Traverse, and her dog found Kleon. She said he was right behind her and not to worry that he was lost. Kleon said he felt like an Angel found him – it was her dog licking his hand as it ran by 😂.
We broke camp just as it was getting dark. We made our way down with full packs to Phelps Creek – down the steep, loose dirt trail and made good time to the car over the final three miles. Another alpine finish!
Fortunately, we had drinks and salty Tim’s Cascade chips waiting for us. Upon arrival to the car, we discovered mice had found our snacks and eaten our chips – terrible! We were starving as we planned only one night out, but we extended the trip to two as we were slow, tired, and had bad weather the first night. Sadly, we got to the car just before midnight and had to drive to Monroe to find an open 24-hour Jack in the Box drive-through – a spicey chicken sandwich never tasted so good!
As always, thanks for #HikingWithHadland, @hikingwiththehad.
https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/chelan-county-hiking-cf1cf43
As always, thanks for #HikingWithHadland, @hikingwiththehad.
