Tried this a week ago and the Mesatchee Creek trail was buried in snow by the Ridgeline. Good Hike, Trails are in good shape but there was still a LOT of snow by American Lake, especially to the west. We lost the trail for about 1/2 of a mile, but one of us (that would be me) found it. American Lake is beautiful this time of year. We saw a couple of backpackers on the PCT. Not TOO many bugs. The weather was nice and my 2 legged hiking partner did not bitch too much.

Just back from a two-night backpack trip (July 25-27, 2008) on a 23-mile loop that starts at the Mesatchee Creek Trailhead off of SR410, a few miles east of Chinook Pass. I took the Dewey Lake Trail 968 about nine miles up to Dewey Lake and spent the first night there. The lake is fully melted but there's still a fair amount of snow around the lake, particularly on the slopes along the south shore, but not enough to block anything. Horrible mosquitoes at the trailhead but minor at the lake. The trail is in reasonably good shape; be aware you have to ford the American River along the way. Only a short bit of strenuous climbing on the trail to reach the lake, which wasn't too bad. After a pleasant night at Dewey Lake I then took the PCT (#2000) to its junction with the American Ridge Trail (958). There were several areas of significant snow along the PCT and it will still be at least 2-3 weeks before it melts, if then. The trail to American Lake crossed several large snowfields but all is manageable. I had the beautiful lake to myself and the waters were flowing in and out as the snow melted around it. I then continued down to the junction with Cougar Lakes Trail and filled my water bottle in the stream there for the long, waterless climb up American Ridge. The 4.2 miles went quickly but the trail is in need of maintenance in many spots, with several blowdowns and drainage problems. Elk have been using the trail a lot and it was churned up as if it had been trampled by dozens of horses. I saw no bootprints until getting close to Mesatchee Creek trail junction. There are two ponds about a mile west of the junction that are scenic but the water is mostly stagnant. I wanted to stay up on the ridge for my second night so went down the Mesatchee Creek trail about a quarter mile and found a spring that allowed me to fill a pot and my water bottles for the night. I stayed at a scenic overlook on a bare ridge just east and uphill of the trail junction, looking out over Bumping Lake, Nelson Ridge, and all the way across William O. Douglas Wildernesss to the Goat Rocks. The trail beyond here got horribly bad and is need of serious maintenance, as I remembered from hiking the ridge several years ago. I enjoyed the whole ridge to myself but clouds blew in during the night and it was a drizzly, cool start to the morning. I made quick time going downhill on Mesatchee Creek Trail, which drops steeply almost the whole way until reaching the junction with the Dewey Lake Trail. It's clearly a better choice to do the loop in the direction I did. If you went the opposite direction you'd have a very steep, dusty, sun-baked climb up the Mesatchee Creek Trail with no water or campsites at the top. As with the other trails, the Mesatchee Creek Trail needs some serious maintenance. It is essentially a ditch most of the way, filled with loose rocks and volcanic dust (and this is before it's had much use this year). Drainage bars and dips are long gone and there's a few stretches where the trail has become a streambed. It was still a very nice backpack trip with lots of great scenery and very do-able in a 3 day or even 2-day trip (first day to American Lake and second day back to the car).

October high altitude hike in shorts and t-shirt, who would of thought it? Oscar, my dog, hunted two hunters, barked at them and sent them bushwacking. Reached 6946 ft along American Ridge for epic views. No animals spotted, lots of scat particularly black bear near big basin area. Traces of snow. Great day

We hiked up trail #958 on Saturday. Good views and lots of flowers. We spotted 2 big ant hills just off the trail (3 ft diameter!). We hiked up to 4500' without seeing any snow on the trail. One blowdown, but we were able to climb over it.

Even on this beautiful August Saturday, we not only found complete solitude, but also bagged a peak. We began by going east on highway 410 all the way to Bumping Lake Road and then drove to the Goat Creek trailhead which is right across the road from the Cougar Flats campground. Even though the campground was full of people, no one was on the trail or parked at the trailhead. The trail was dry and dusty right from the get go with lots of dead wood all over the place. It is easy to see why there is a burn ban. The first four miles were very steep and strenuous and the views didn't begin to open up until we reached American Ridge. Heading north on the ridge, we continued to ascend with more swithbacks before finally reaching the highest point on the ridge, Goat Peak, at nearly 6500 feet. Curses on whoever left garbage or feces around because there were thousands if not milllions of bugs swarming just around the Peak and nowhere else. Other than that, it was a great hike.