Brooke has been drooling over Jim’s Golden Larch trip photos for years. Since this could be Brooke’s one and only Golden Larch trip, Jim wanted to make sure it was a trip she would never forget.
With news that we would be going to the Chelan Sawtooths, several of our friends joined in. We woke the day of our trip to find smoke from the wild fires had rolled back in. This didn’t deter Kevin, George, Karen, Tony, Susie, and Todd from meeting us at the Fields Point ferry dock.
The ride to Prince Creek took about an hour. To our surprise, we were the only group of hikers getting off here.
After a few minutes of tucking everything into our packs, we were off.
Today would be a long hike up Prince Creek. We crossed Prince Creek a couple of times.
At one of the crossings, Jim, Brooke, and Kevin decided to take a swim. Must have been very cold because no one stayed in long. It was almost dark when we arrived at the forest shelter camp.
As we hit the trail in the morning, we were all excited to get into larch country. After an hour or so, we broke out of the trees and into the fall colored meadows.
Everyone but Tony and Susie stopped at Star Pass to drop packs and climb Star Peak. Golden Larches filled the hillside.
Star Peak is a very straight forward climb along a ridgeline. This allowed for many stops along the way to enjoy the view of Oval and Courtney Peaks.
As well as, looking down on Star Lake and the basin below.
Though the smoke kept us from enjoying distant mountain views, it didn’t keep us from enjoying the summit and views of Oval Peak.
The afternoon was getting warm. It was hard to believe it was October. As we descended from the summit, we all started talking about taking a dip in Star Lake. When we reached our packs, I quickly repacked my pack and hit the trail heading for the cool water of Star Lake.
Once at Star Lake, we found Susie and Tony who decided to skip the climb for enjoying the lake. Within minutes, everyone was in the lake. The temps surprised us all. It was not much warmer than Prince Creek.
After a dip in the lake, we setup camp in the nearby basin.
As some of the group headed off to climb Courtney Peak and get a better view of Star Peak, Tony, Susie, Karen, and I decided to relax in camp, play scrabble, and drink margaritas. Well I drank margaritas.
The view of Star Peak is incredible from Courtney Peak. When I saw Brooke’s pictures, I remember the view from when I climbed Courtney several years ago.
Sunset in the basin was beautiful. It was so hard to believe it was late fall.
As we sat around in the dark having dinner, Lisa arrived under headlamp. This made our party 10. We later found out that another friend of ours just happened to be camping at Star Lake that night.
In the morning, we sat around having breakfast and planning our day.
Some people were going to hiked up Gray Peak on their way to Lake Juanita while other were going to hike up Boulder Butte after setting up camp at Lake Juanita. Some time during the night the smoke settled in the valley floor leaving us with distant views. It was going to be a spectacular day.
Jim, Brooke, and I decided to hike up Boulder Butte for sunset so we had all day to get to Lake Juanita. We strolled through larch filled boulder fields.
And meadows with very old larch trees. A larch tree grows incredible slow. For a tree to have multiple branches meant it had been here for hundreds of years.
As we neared, Deep Hole Creek, the ground cover turned to blueberry bushes which added a red tone to the setting.
Once over Deep Hole Pass, we headed to Lake Juanita to setup camp and then head up to Boulder Butte.
We arrived Boulder Butte in time to have the evening rays light up Reynolds Peak.
The sunset was a wonderful way to end such a perfect day.
For our last day, we had to hike down to Stehekin to catch the 12:30 Lady of the Lake. It was going to be a nearly 6000 foot drop. We all set alarms and rose in the dark, packed up, and were out of camp just as the skies were getting light. As we hiked to Purple Pass, the sun lite up the Golden Larches and fall grasses.
At Purple Pass, we all stopped to enjoy the view and take a group picture before starting the plunge to Lake Chelan.
Even though the sun was warm on Purple Pass, the trail to Stehekin was in the shade for hours.
The fall colors along the trail did help easy the knee pain from the miles of trail.
Then the sun hit the lake.
Jim, Brooke, and I began to move faster. We all wanted to take a swim in Lake Chelan before getting on the boat. Plus a hamburger was starting to sound really good.
When we reach Stehekin, we went straight for the lake. The cool water felt so good on our aching joints. We soaked in the lake for quite some time before the growl in our stomach had us head up to get burgers. What I really wanted was something from the bakery but there was no time. Then I saw Kevin and found out he had arrived early and ran out to the bakery to get everyone treats. YEAH!
On the boat ride back to Fields Point, we all talked about our adventure and started planning for next year.
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