We set out from the parking lot just after 9:00 am on this beautiful fall day. We soon came to the first headwall with its several waterfalls, and ascended via the well-worn trail up the sparsely treed slope to the second waterfall, which we bypassed on climber’s left. After a bit of route finding correction thanks to Carolyn (my mistake, sorry Carolyn and Gary!), we arrived at Noseeum Lake. From there it is up the steep gulley and along the ridge to the summit. Gary had done this trip twice before, and I had done it once before, and we both agreed that the gulley has become much more challenging than on our previous trips. Instead of the loose scree that we remembered, it is now mostly hard packed dirt with lots of large loose rocks, making it more difficult underfoot with more serious rockfall hazard. It looks like it had been subjected to significant erosion due to water flow. I was glad that there were just three of us on the trip, because I think it has become quite hazardous to have a much larger group ascending or descending the gulley. We arrived at the summit about 1:00 pm, waved at the Ramblers group on Bow Peak, and started back down at about 1:45 pm. As mentioned above, we had to move very slowly and carefully down the gulley to prevent any mishaps. We arrived back at the parking lot at about 5:00 pm. Thank you to Carolyn and Gary for joining me Jack on another beautiful day in the mountains.
Total distance 13.9 km, total elevation gain 1190 m, total time 8.0 hours.