Gold Creek Circumnavigation

Day One
TNT had been scouting out Gold Creek and the surrounding area during the summer and put together an overnight backpack trip for us. The weather didn’t look promising, but we decided to go for it around 7:30am. The hike up to Lake Lillian went by quickly and I enjoyed the burnt colors of a Northwest Fall. Once past Lillian, we made our way along the backside of Rampart Ridge, taking in views of Box Canyon and Lake Kachess. This area is dotted with Lakes, hence the name “Alpine Lakes”, and we passed by at least for of them. Atop Alta Pass, a dense layer of fog surrounded us. According to Tim’s calculations, we could stay atop a ridge the at would eventually hook up the Pacific Crest Trail or we could veer northeast into the valley and towards Park Lakes, adding roughly 2 miles to the trip.

Feeling adventuresome, we tried our way along the ridge. We kept searching for any sign of a trail, and at times it appeared we found one. In hindsight, we were probably following a mountain goat path, as we were forced to scramble precariously across rock faces and more than once I had to steady myself as I inched across towards safety. Tim was worried about his dog, but Trooper made it through without incident and didn’t seem to mind the treacherous route.

We finally reach the Pacific Crest Trail , which we dubbed the “highway” after our 2 hour traverse on a non-existent trail along the ridge-top. The trail cut straight across Chikamin and was impressive. Once past Chikamin, it briefly snowed on us as we hurried along the trail. We finally arrived above Joe Lake around 4:30pm and scrambled down the steep hillside to the north bank of the lake. As soon as our tents were up it began to rain. We went into our respective tents and decided to wait out the rain. I lasted about 5 swigs of wine and 20 minutes before I was sound asleep.

Day Two
We slept in until about 8am, personally racking up over 12 hours of sleep. After a leisurely breakfast, the morning fog burned off, revealing blue skies and sun. We got moving around 11am, and opted to head up the ridge on the Gold Creek side of Joe Lake. The ridge hooked up with the PCT and looked like a more agreeable approach than heading back up the steep slope. We didn’t exactly choose the best path and before long we were scrambling through dense brush. We came out onto the arm of Alaska mountain and continued scrambling up the mountain until we finally reached the PCT. Past Ridge and Gravel Lakes we sped until we reached the Kendall Catwalk and took a short break. Kenny, Maria and Sherry arrived shortly thereafter and we enjoyed some wine and food before heading back down to the parking lot near Summit West on Alpental Road.