Scatter Lake — Sunday, Oct. 12, 2014

North Cascades > Methow/Sawtooth

My husband and I decided to hunt down some larch this fall. We planned a long weekend trip to Winthrop and set 3 larch hikes for our weekend goal. This hike was our longest planned and the most up close and personal we'd get with a larch forest. We left Winthrop by 9am under blue skies but we could already see the clouds building in the mountains. It took us about 40 minutes to get along Twisp River Road to the trailhead. We were right on the edge of the clouds. The start to this hike is an excellent warm-up grade with long switchbacks up the side of the mountain. Eventually you start working your way north, always keeping Scatter Creek down in a gully on your right side. I appreciated having the sound of the water to hike along to - fall is a bit quieter in the forest. We crossed Scatter Creek and continued further along beside it. Abernathy Ridge was now starting to loom over us. Finally, we popped out into a beautiful bowl full of larches. A bit higher on the ridge we could see some "flocked" larches, thanks to a snowfall the day before. We continued up the last (tough!) section over the ridge and into Scatter Lake basin. The larch were not as strong colored but still a wonder to see. The lake was beautiful and could warrant a return trip in the heat of the summer just to be able to dip into the water. The trip up took a little over 3 hours, and about 2 hours back down. It was an excellent, challenging and rewarding hike for the shoulder season.