Was up in the scenic area this weekend. The west end of Red Lake trail is in pretty good shape, a few stepovers here and there. Lots of mosquitos! Potato Butte had a good view on Friday. The water in Averill Lake was nice and warm for swimming.
There is some snow on the trail as you get above 5000'. There was a small burned area near the meadow on the PCNST where the trail makes a U turn and heads up to the Many Lakes viewpoint. There was no view on Saturday at the viewpoint, just fog. We were going to try to make it to Ruddy Hill but the snow got really bad. We turned back when the we started going up one side of a 6' to 8' snow drift and then back down just to be greeted by another. It was really slowing us down. We turned back about a half mile south of the Couldn't See Any Lakes viewpoint.
In the three days we were up there, we only saw a lone day hiker. I was with a small group of Boy Scouts, but they probably made enough noise to give those seeking solitude fair warning of our location. Maybe that's why we didn't see more people around. We cleaned up a large abandoned tent and some other trash at Averill Lake. It was a good weekend.
Kirk beat me to it....I was going to post - As far as downed trees, I would estimate 20ish from the west end until the junction with the PCT. Very few are difficult to stepover, but there are a few that still have branches that are harder. I think the worse problem is the brush. Some areas of the trail are getting pretty brushy. I didn't bring my clippers (trying to save weight), but we did do a little trail maintenance - throwing limbs and rocks off the trail and Kirk even managed to move a whole tree off the trail!
Even with the rain, snow, cool temps, fog and bugs it was a great weekend...Although not at all what I had expected for mid July!
Here are a few pictures:
Double Peaks from Averill Lake
Foggy Many Lakes Viewpoint
The trail tread is under there somewhere!
