Lolo Pass to Bald Mtn and then some

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squidvicious
Posts: 525
Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Lolo Pass to Bald Mtn and then some

Post by squidvicious » June 8th, 2023, 1:32 pm

On Wednesday 6/8/23 I set out from Lolo Pass mainly to hike the loop around Bald Mountain, but I also wanted to continue on the TT a ways to check conditions, as I'd heard it was substantially melted out. I hoped to get as far as the tarns.

The PCT section was unexpectedly good. The switchbacks were clear of both snow and debris, minus one tree down at the top. Once I'd topped out of the switchbacks I hit an area of solid snow cover, just melted out enough to obscure previous bootprints. That and a lack of blazes or markers in that area made just staying on the trail an adventure for a minute. Once it did the 180 turn up onto the ridge the snow disappeared entirely. Also absolutely zero winter damage.

Patches of snow reappeared at the 4-way junction and on through the trees, but no debris. Then no problems until the cutoff, which was buried under a big downed branchy fir. Distracted by the obstacle, I didn't even notice I was at the junction (the tree either took out or totally buried the sign) until I tried to go around it and found myself standing on the cutoff trail. Someone who opted to duck under instead of go around might easily miss it.

Patchy snow again on the North side, then maybe a mile? past the cutoff, the snow disappeared again. Until just as I was coming up to the Scramble Trail junction, when I went from "Wow, I haven't seen a trace of snow for a while now" to several feet of snow in an instant. I pushed on for a short while, but it was more of a pain than I wanted to bother with for an arbitrary turnaround point.

Returned on the north side of the Bald Mtn loop. That was still holding snow where there had been the worst previous storm damage. It's like a tree graveyard in there, and I was a little worried about postholing and snapping an ankle or something on some hidden tangle under the snow.

Overall better conditions than I was expecting, and it was fun to be on snow after Tuesday's heat. By the time I got home I was regretting that I hadn't just gone ahead and pressed on further.

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adamschneider
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Re: Lolo Pass to Bald Mtn and then some

Post by adamschneider » June 8th, 2023, 3:12 pm

Any flowers blooming on the south-facing slope of Bald Mountain?

squidvicious
Posts: 525
Joined: May 11th, 2015, 8:41 pm
Location: Troutdale

Re: Lolo Pass to Bald Mtn and then some

Post by squidvicious » June 8th, 2023, 3:16 pm

I did note some flowers, but not great broad swaths of them.

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