Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

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drm
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Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

Post by drm » September 11th, 2017, 9:45 am

So where are all the trip reports these days? Are you all cowering at home due to smoke? Well, now it's much clearer up there. The mountains are your escape from smoke.

Lookingglass Lake used to be a very popular backpacker destination on Mt Adams till the Cascade Creek Fire burned through in 2012. There is not a single green tree around the lake any more, just black sticks, and almost nobody comes any more. So I decided to go again. I hiked the Stagman Ridge trail to the unofficial Graveyard Camp trail that connects to the lake. It was 55 degrees with a misty drizzle at the start, a nice change from the heat and smoke we've been having. The drizzle soon stopped and the sun came out, for a while at least.

Typical burned areas on Stagman Ridge
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After passing by a place called Grassy Hill, the trail turns left and drops into a small drainage, where there is one of the few areas of green trees, and for now, lots of blueberries and hucklberries
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The view from the meadow on Stagman Ridge about 3.1 miles in (as it looked coming out the next day)
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After I turned right on the connector trail, this muddy creek comes up right away
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The larger branch of Cascade Creek you cross just before hitting the lake trail
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My camp on Lookingglass Lake with a bit of a lenticular on Mt Adams
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After lunch I left on a dayhike to summit The Hump, a minor bump on a ridge about 4 miles to the north. The Bumper is closer but I had been there. I had not yet been to The Hump.

Horseshoe Meadow
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A smaller branch of Cascade Creek passes through Horseshoe Meadow, and had collected this silt next to it, with the consistency of quicksand
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The eastern wall of The Hump. I went around to the right/south to the back/west side and got on top with a couple of class three scrambling moves
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From the top, looking back at Mt Adams, where clouds were gathering again
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Looking south to the nearby Bumper
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When I got to the top I saw a huge marmot that immediately ran away. But I stayed there a while and he peaked out after a while
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Back near camp, the falls on Cascade Creek
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Next day on the way out, don't remember seeing this flower before
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The fireweed was giving off these cottony seeds
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Way to the south is Mt Hood, with the wildfire smoke lingering in the lowlands
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By sunset clouds had socked in everything and the misty drizzle returned. But it didn't last long and it was mostly clear in the morning with just some high clouds.

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K.Wagner
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Re: Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

Post by K.Wagner » September 13th, 2017, 9:07 am

A great report!

I love your marmot picture!

Romann & I were up in that general area a couple of years ago, and I had been wondering if there was any green starting to show up. I guess it is going to take a few more years!

We saw that little trail junction, and I recall our pondering about whether in fact it was the old trail over to Lookingglass Lake.

We did The Bumper on our trip, and looked over at The Hump, wanting to do it, but we still had the hike out to deal with, and it was a hot day.
Kelly
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romann
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Re: Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

Post by romann » September 13th, 2017, 10:28 pm

Very nice area up there! Great pictures, I like the view of Bumper from the Hump, haven't realized they're that close.

It looks a bit like high desert there right above the treeline, almost more sandy than rocky, very little green color & so much sun and views. I came back last fall and missed the Hump again (so many rock outcrops around there that look similar, hard to tell the "right one" without looking at GPS), but didn't want to backtrack just to tag the top. Views already could hardly be any better. Saw many goats higher on the mountain.

Kelly, did you come back to do the Pinnacle? I didn't plan it on last fall's hike, but looking at it from ~7200' wished I had more time (was checking out some tarn, but it was dry). It was too late in the day for it, but Pinnacle looked very doable.

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drm
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Re: Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

Post by drm » September 14th, 2017, 6:46 am

I think The Bumper is a more interesting feature to summit if somebody can only do one. While The Bumper is a well-defined feature, The Hump is just a ridge with a high point barely higher than the rest of the ridge.

I looked around at the lake and could not find a single sapling growing. I have long felt that in our changing climate many parts of Adams that burn will not regrow forests. I expect that some decades hence they will be a lot more like the eastern Pasayten: alpine tundra.

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kepPNW
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Re: Mt Adams Lookingglass Lake and The Hump

Post by kepPNW » September 16th, 2017, 11:16 am

drm wrote:I think The Bumper is a more interesting feature to summit if somebody can only do one. While The Bumper is a well-defined feature, The Hump is just a ridge with a high point barely higher than the rest of the ridge.
Just love it up there! Wandered around twice, and (for whatever reason) never felt compelled to actually hit either of the named bumps, but found this one (blue arrow) to be highly compelling. I suppose it has no name... Certainly nothing as whimsical as the other two. This area has absolutely worked its way into my annual rotation!
  • capture.png
    Unnamed feature?
Karl
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