Merritt Lake

 On this beautiful Monday I drove 11 miles east of Stevens Pass and turned onto the Merritt Lake trailhead road. Only 1.6 miles of approach road, but that is good because it is rough and rocky. Two wheel drive works fine but go slow.
 My destination today was Mt. Mastiff (6,741') so I skipped the trail to Merritt Lake and continued on the trail up to Nason Ridge. After hiking approximately 3.5 miles from the trailhead up to the ridge the trail begins a turn to the west on Nason Ridge and begins to lose elevation. This is the place where one finds the climbers path up to Mt. Mastiff. There is a dead tree (It almost looks like a post) with two nails at the spot where the climber's path leaves the main trail, but it is easy to miss. The climbers path follows the ridge north towards Mt. Mastiff. If you lose the path just stay with the ridge and you will find it again. After about a mile the ridge becomes very narrow and one must drop and traverse the steep east side for maybe 200 yards. (class 2 or 3 - see picture) This ridge traverse was my major concern and I took it slow and careful. After the traverse the climb up to the summit of Mt. Mastiff was a walk up.
 Despite the haze from fires somewhere the views were great. 10 miles round trip with 3,700' of elevation gain. About 4 hours up and 3 down. The summer bug problem seems to be history.