From the Dungeness River trailhead, made the easy hike 3.2 miles to Camp Handy. Proceeded another approximately 3.5 miles up Heather Creek trail (marked on maps as a livestock pack trail) past one hairy log-bridge over the creek, and through one blowdown near the end of the trail, where it very abruptly stops at the Olympic National Park boundary. From here we could see Little Mystery straight ahead (southwest)from where the trail ended, and Hal Foss Peak and Mt. Fricaba off to the right (northwest). Made camp. That evening, did a scouting mission about 700 feet up the Foss-Fricaba gully, through which Heather Creek flows in a series of beautiful waterfalls. Unable to see other than Hal Foss Peak and Mt. Fricaba, so decided to bag one of these the following day and decide from there if Mt. Mystery, our original objective, remained a reasonable goal.

Arose early the next morning, making a four-hour climb up mixed rock & snow....plenty of loose basalt and talus. The snow that we encountered was in good condition, easy for kick-ins. A very obvious reason (we assumed) that no routes to these peaks via Heather Creek are listed in the OMR Climber's Guide to the Olympics is that this route forces you straight up an avalanche basin. Safe at this time of year, but quite definitely not so at other times. A map reading might lead one to belive that one could simply forge ahead (west), around Hal Foss and then north to Mount Mystery. However, this route would lead one into virtualy impassible brush and a series of avalance blowdowns...then straight up the Mystery glacier...a highly undesireable looking route.

Made the Hal Foss Peak summit (7179 feet) at 11:00 am on Sunday June 29th. Spectacular view of Mts. Constance, Warrior, Jupiter, Brothers to the east and southeast, Deception and Mystery to the east. Mystery would certainly be attainable from this approach (via the notch between Fricaba and Hal Foss)...perhaps another 2-3 hours climbing. However, at this time the weather was changing rapidly, and rain had begun to fall. Fear of lightning caused us to settle for a limited stay at the Hal Foss summit and then make the three hour trek down.

After resting again at out park-boundary camp, returned half way (near Camp Handy), camped the night, and made it out the rest of the way the next morning.

Interestingly, many mosquitoes, flies and red ants at our park-boundary camp, but virtually none down below in the Camp Handy area. Perhaps it was the late hour that was responsible for that.

The OMR book recommends attaining Mystery, Fricaba and Hal Foss from Royal Basin or from Constance Pass (currently difficult due to the Dosewallips Road being washed out). This Heather Creek route, though seasonally limited due to the avalanche danger, offers a possible alternative, at least for Fricaba and Hal Foss, and it looks like Mystery as well.