Mt Adams Backpack Tryptich

[drm]

I planned a four day backpacking trip on Mt Adams over an extended July 4 weekend. But as I knew was possible, there was too much snow for me to go around the mountain on the Round the Mountain and PCT trails. So I improvised and went back down each morning and drove to a different trailhead, each night camping below the snow line, though walking through patchy snow in varying degrees to get there. So the first trip was up Shorthorn Trail, camping at Lookinglass Lake. #2 was up the Riley Trail to Riley Meadows. And trip #3 was up Killen Creek to camp at the meadow at about 5600 feet, about 3/4 mile below the PCT junction.

First thing first, the lower section of the Shorthorn Trail had an amazing breagrass bloom






And I think this might be arnica


Most of it is burned, so this creek a couple miles in is nice


Started hitting more and more snow on the Round the Mountain Trail, but did get to Horseshoe Meadow

Spent the night at Lookinglass Lake



There is a very nice waterfall nearby



The next morning hiking out, I saw two helicopters coming in for climbers rescues, here is the first one


Then I drove over to the Riley Trail, which by the way is always good to see some frogs


The false hellibore is always wild looking


The Pinnacle in the West side of Mt Adams from Riley Meadows presents a very different profile of Mt Adams than most people are used to


On the way to Killen Creek the next day, I stopped for lunch at Takhlakh Lake


Near my camp meadow, about 2.5 miles up Killen Ck trail, the avalanche lilies were decent




Goat Rocks is melting out - slowly


Campers with free time in the evening at last light


It was cloudy on the mountain that afternoon but I got the view in the morning. I call it a coffee view.

[George of the Jungle]

How much snow was there along the PCT north of Riley Camp? I'm supposed to scout that section of trail for future trail work, but need to wait until it's mostly clear of snow.

[sheilakpdx]

Those pics and the amount of blooming bear grass are incredible! How were the mosquitoes? We are heading up to Trapper Creek and it is sometimes a crap shoot this time of year. Many thanks!

[drm]

George, there as a lot of snow on the PCT at Riley Creek, especially on more north facing slopes. But it's supposed to get hot this coming week, so by the latter part of July it should be clear.

Sheila, Mosquitoes got worse the farther north around the mountain I got. Almost none at Lookinglass Lake, some at Riley Meadow, a lot more on Killen Creek. Trapper Creek itself should be fine, but Soda Peaks Lake and the area around Observation Peak can be bad in July.