Overnight up to American Ridge on the Goose Prairie Trail (first TH north of Bumping Lake - parked in a campsite area across the road), along the main American Ridge trail to the ridge summit before camping in a meadow below. Trail was tough to follow and disappeared in many places, which led to a fair amount of annoying bushwhacking on very steep slopes. GPS was very helpful - generally would have been able to stay parallel to the ridge without it, but would have lost a lot more time. I'd wondered if it might be possible to scramble the entire ridge, but it didn't look like it would have been due to cliffs. Bugs were very bad, especially near any water. Zero people. The solitude was nice, but the views weren't amazing until the top, and the trail needs some love. Water was not terribly frequent, mostly the outlet streams from swampy late-summer ponds. Don't think there was any water from the summit until the junction with the Mesatchee trail, but I was able to melt some lingering snow. ~15 miles with a lot of climbing.
Day 2 was more pleasant - trail reappears near the Mesatchee junction and is strong thereafter, with frequent water. Beautiful hike by American Lake and then south on a great section of PCT, down to the big Fish Lake - would have been a long hot climb in the other direction. Nice snow patches for cooling purposes, which my dog appreciated, though the trail was essentially clear. Boring but decent section of trail back to Bumping Lake - doesn't appear on all maps, labeled Bumping Lake Trail with a cutoff via a smaller "Fish Lake Trail" that worked well (but required a river ford). Lots of blowdowns here, but fortunately the trail never disappeared. Then a long and dusty road walk back to the car. The dirt forest roads are nice, but once we hit the paved section cars were speeding in and out of the marina and that was less fun. ~25 miles, mostly going down.
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