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August
1, 2003
Follow
Mineral Creek Trail for
5.5 miles to PCT. Turn left onto PCT and follow it for about 0.7
mile to the junction with Chikamin Lake Trail #1360, that goes to
the right. The junction is not marked. Follow Chikamin
Lake Trail 1360 for 1.1 mile to the junction with Chikamin Peak
Route that goes to the left.
To
do this in one day we needed an early start. We applied much needed
bug juice and left the Mineral Creek trailhead at 7:15 and cruised.
Arrived at Park Lake 9:30 from there we hiked up to and took a left
on the Crest Trail for a little less than a mile. Just below a saddle
we took a right (north) on an unmarked trail to the top of the saddle
and had a snack and enjoyed a great view of Spectacle Lake and the
"stone kingdom". We left here at 10:30. headed north down
the steep trail towards Glacier Lake, lost and found the trail a
little till we went around Glacier Lake on the right (east) side.
At 11:00, we headed around the north side of the lake - "The
main trail continues along the north shore of the lake for about
0.2 mile and reaches a rockfall area with a huge rock standing in
a middle of it . The trail gets lost here. Continue on, passing
the big rock on the right. Past the rock the trail crosses a creek
and follows the creek's south bank for about 0.2 mile, then crosses
on to the north bank, and steeply climbs for about 0.1 mile to another
junction. To the left goes a cross-country route used by climbers
heading to Chikamin Peak." We followed pretty close to the
creek up to the 5380' unnamed lake (Lake Chick Corea) that is nw
of Glacier Lake. We headed west along the south side of this lake
and headed uphill sse a little ways until it seemed easiest to start
heading nw up toward Chikamin Ridge. We attained the ridge at its
low point just north of the Four Brothers. We followed the ridgetop
north to just below the summit block occasionally dropping down
a little on the east side. The scramble from Glacier Lake to here
was very easy class 2, but looking up at the summit and the summit
gully fear crept into my heart. This looked steep and loose. I was
told finding the route up the summit blocks was difficult. Well,
my fears were unfounded. When we reached the base of the summit
gully, we headed up the easy rock and heather on its the right side
avoiding almost all of the loose stuff. Now, the supposedly difficult
task of finding an easy scramble up the summit rocks. From the top
of the gully, we headed north for a few yards until we almost turned
the corner. We then headed up an easy class 3 and low exposure chimney
followed by another of the same and after experiencing no real difficulties
our quite enjoyable and easy scramble to the summit was finished
at 2:00. It was so much fun getting there I almost wished there
was more to go. When we were at Glacier Lake we scoffed at the report
we read that it would take 3 hours from Glacier to the top. I guess
we should not scoff. We also laughed about bringing our ice axes,
because there was no snow to deal with. We had a great lunch with
stunning views from the top of the world 
and headed down at 3:00. We had now made our big mistake. What was
an easy, pleasant scramble was about to change. We decided to head
down an easier (ha), quicker way. We headed back down to the saddle
at the low point of Chikamin Ridge. Instead of doing the smart thing
and heading down to Glacier Lake, here we headed north down what
looked like steep, but easy grassy slopes. Now I'm sure if a person
knew the right route or was lucky or smarter than us they would
not have gone down where we went. We went down dangerously steep,
slippery slopes and gullies requiring us to pull out our ice axes
for much needed protection on the slippery grass. After much consternation
we reached the Crest Trail below the Four Brothers at 5:30. This
shortcut had taken a lot out of us. On top we had great energy.
My partner's feet had now become sore (toes not blisters). So we
slowly headed back to the junction of the crest trail above Park
Lake. I was planning on taking a swim in Park Lake, but we could
no longer move fast, were nearly out of water and it was around
7:00 when reached Park Lake. The lake temperature was very warm.
It would have been good swimming. We stopped and ate. We headed
slowly back and reached the car at 9:00, just before dark. The water
in cooler never tasted better.
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