Janet P, Bob and I headed out for Ingalls Lake and Fortune Mountain via trail 1390. We saw some folks with small children who had backpacked in to the area. The trail is very nicely graded and well-maintained, so the area is a great destination for young (and old) families.

It is interesting to see the huge blobs of rounded, red and yellow eroding formations and smaller mountains surrounding the soaring whitey-grey sharp spires of Mt. Stuart. Such a sharp contrast in geomorphology and in colors - all in one eyeful!

About ½ mile beyond the pass we left the Ingalls Lake trail and scrambled up Fortune Mtn (7382). Fortune Mtn. is the boring looking pile of red and green loose rock to the west of the pass; but it isn’t boring up close and on top!

We chose to begin our ascent of Fortune on its NE side, a little ways beyond the pass. The surface of Fortune is made up of interesting rocks of all sizes, classes, colors and shapes resting on top of loose dirt, so when you climb it, sometimes it’s one step up and slide 2 steps back. Pretty rocks, though....

From the cold, windy top of Fortune are views of Ten Peak, Glacier, White Chuck, Baker, Pugh, Mts. Hinman and Daniel, Rainier and everything in between. It was interesting to see Pugh Mtn. and Whitechuck with Mt. Baker in between them; I have never seen those 3 line up that way before. We spent about 1.5 hours soaking in the views and taking pictures, both dramatic and silly (the silly ones have us in them). We then headed down to Lake Ingalls. The trail is largely built on top of rock, and I can tell you from experience that no matter how charmed your life is, those rocks don’t care; if you bang your shin against one of them, it is just as hard for you as it is for someone else whose life isn’t so charmed.

We headed out via beautiful Headlight Basin and re-joined trail 1390 at the Pass and back out. I know you’re asking, “What about the larches, dummy' Tell me about the larches!” What's to say' They're just sitting there like always...Ah, but if you want to know about the fall color, well that's different....I suggest you go see for yourself in about 2 weeks. It's a little early yet....but they're changing, oh, they're changing!

Trail to Ingalls Pass in fine shape. Flowers mostly gone, but still lots of yarrow, a bit of paintbrush (orange and yellow), a little skyrocket gilia, some composites, and at least one harebell left. No sign of bugs.

Our attempt at a Teanaway outflanking of the usual Labor Day weekend weather was, at best, a partial success. Lots of people seem to have had a similar idea. Since the rain was intermittent (but mostly light), the wind considerable, and the Stuarts deeply buried in cloud, we didn't go on to Ingalls Lake.

Chicago Willy and I headed for the Teanaway to scramble Ingalls South Peak. We headed to the trailhead Friday night and camped out (in order to get an early start without having to get up at 3:00am). Started up the trail about 7:15, so had nice shade almost all the way up to Ingalls Pass. Saw a doe and two small deerlets walking on the trail just before the pass. Headlight Basin was beautiful and only about five camping parties in the basin (expected to see more). It was starting to heat up by the time we got to Ingalls Lake so we headed for the summit. Lots of biting flies all the way to the dog tooth saddle, then the wind helped blow them away. Recommend hiking the slick rock until a few hundred feet from saddle then crossing over to the trough and scrambling the loose rock to the dog tooth. All this time I’m hearing this grumbling about carrying an ice axe (which I insisted upon having). But we did end up needing them for a small snow trough crossing so I was vindicated. The summit was very buggy (biting flies), so we did not spend a lot of time on the summit. It was a four volcano day, Baker, Glacier, Rainier, and Adams. Saw a rope team doing the North Ingalls Peak. On the way down ran into a group of Everett Scramblers doing the South Peak and had an interesting encounter with a couple of Romanian mountain goats that wanted their pictures taken. Got back to Ingalls Lake and dunked our heads in the cold water, which help for the long dry/dusty trip back to the car. Great day, good company.

A perfect day on the Teanaway: clear blue sky, mild temperature, no bugs, no hint of rain - and lots and lots of people got it right. When I reached the Esmeralda/Ingalls trailhead at 10:00 I had to park so far down the road I didn't need my Trail Park Pass.

The Esmeralda Basin Trail starts steeply beside a great cascade, then levels off before a fork where Ingalls Way begins a beautifully engineered climb up the convoluted side of the basin. Forest quickly gives way to meadow which gives way to rock, and the views are continuous. I took my oldman's time going up, and all the many people who passed me were kind enough to suggest I'd stopped to admire the view. (Well, that was true, too. :)

At Ingalls Pass the trail crosses through stunted pines into another world. Headlight Basin rivals Spray Park as one of the ""finest places"" in the Cascades. Flowery meadows are dotted with clumps of trees and cut by meandering streams that cascade from the upper basin to the lower: for Rainier substitute Mt Stuart looming across the gulf of Ingalls Creek, and add the view down the valley flanked by the Stuart Range and the Wenatchee Mountains.

I ambled around the upper basin, the trail longer and rougher than I'd expected (since Ingalls Pass and Lake are about the same elevation), and then lost it entirely about a 1/4 mile before the Lake. I discovered I'd gotten quite away above the trail so I decided to change my itinerary and climb to Ingalls Ridge before going to the Lake instead of after. This was a lucky change, for I found what proved to be by far the easiest route up the slope.

I clambered up a series of grassy ramps and ladders beside the tiny cascades of the headwaters of Headlight Creek to the base of the cliffs, then made a rising traverse around a buttress on easy talus alive with a myriad of unphotographable flowers till I reached the gullies coming up from the lake and harder going. First across a gulch filled with car-sized boulders, then following a sketchy path up moderate talus, next kicking careful steps across the top of a steep patch of snow and finally ascending a nasty gravel chute (one step up, two steps back) to reach the saddle between North and South Ingalls Peaks and immense views west and east.

Eight or ten rockclimbers were working on the North Peak and as many hikers were strung out along the ridge leading to the South Peak. That had been my intended destination, too, but I was just flat out of time. I stopped long enough to take a panoramic series of pictures in both directions, then started down the standard route to the lake: it's not difficult, just tedious, ninehundred feet of talus, one step at a time.

Finally reached Lake Ingalls at 4:45, almost seven hours from the car, and I was thinking it was a good thing I'd brought a flashlight. Scrambled over the slippery, glaciated rock at the south end of the lake - does anybody know the source of that soapy silt that coats so much of the rock near the lake' - and started to follow the trail away from the lake. I immediately got off on a side trail and wound up asking someone directions (so much for the stereotype).

Got back on the trail again but, in spite of the fact that I was following a dozen people, I managed to lose it again, about where I'd lost it coming in. - It was not one of my better days for routefinding! :(

I navigated carefully back across the upper basin, enviously aware of the campers lazing in the late afternoon sun, and got back to Ingalls Pass at 6:15, where I stopped for ""lunch"", my first food and second drink in eight hours. I didn't leave the Pass till 6:30, but Ingalls way is a great trail for the gravitationally-challenged, going down! I was back at the car at 8:15 and didn't need the flashlight afterall. Strangely enough I had seen no-one at all on the way down, no other dayhikers coming out and no late campers coming in.

Anyway, I got to Cle Elum at 9:30 where it turned out Dairy Queen was still open (thanks, folks) so I was able to get my ""must have"" restorative milkshake. As an added bonus, they make about as good a burger as you can find anywhere. :)