Water over road past Honeymoon campground, but there was a sedan at the trailhead so apparently it's doable for most vehicles. Road is otherwise in good shape
First bit of trail is along an old road bed. I spent some time sawing small blowdown, but there are several larger trees down. The initial crossing of Copper Glance Creek is a little sketchy - some of the logs are not at all stable, and the water is quite deep in spots. Soon after that I reached an old mine. The trail heads off to the left. The going was pleasant until the burned area above 6000'. Trail was obliterated in places, so I picked my way through burnt forest and snow patches. Turned north rather than crossing the creek again and gained the southeast ridge of Big Craggy. Started seeing boot and dog prints; someone was just an hour or so ahead of me (hope your ankle is ok, Jeff!) but I never caught up. No difficulties to the top, just steep forest and snow.
Next on the list was West Craggy. The route was a bit trickier than expected but I seem to have gone the right way. Will leave it for others to describe. There's a nice bootpath when you finally loop around to the mellow southwest side of the peak.
On the way back I stopped by Copper Glance Lake. Snow most of the way, but boots were sufficient.
Got back before dark and drove back down the road before stopping for the night. I like backpacking, but sleeping in the back of the truck has its charms!
Comments
Did you use snowshoes or was the snow good enough to just boot up?
Posted by:
MidLifeHiker on May 20, 2021 06:20 PM
I did not bring snowshoes and do not recall wishing I had them. It was a fairly warm day too. However, the next day I did Raven Ridge and expected similar conditions, but was miserable without snowshoes. So it can be a tough call! Now that I think about it, I probably would have put on snowshoes in a few spots (in particular, heading over to the lake) if they were handy, just to speed things up a bit.
Posted by:
neek on May 20, 2021 08:27 PM
Thanks for the info. Think I carry the snowshoes.
Posted by:
MidLifeHiker on May 20, 2021 09:24 PM
Hello!
Can you explain what you mean by this a little more:
There's a nice bootpath when you finally loop around to the mellow southwest side of the peak.
I'm trying to figure out your route for the traverse to West Craggy.
Posted by:
pinkpants on May 27, 2021 05:06 PM
So you're basically just going along the connecting ridge from Big Craggy to West Craggy, initially staying a little south of the crest, because it's pretty, well, craggy on the other side. Then around 8100' you hit the south ridge of West Craggy. Cross over to what I guess would just be the west side of it, where you'll find traces of a bootpath (unless it got covered in fresh snow) side-hilling more or less due north to the summit. I don't think you'll have any trouble--there's some loose scrambling, but nothing too treacherous. Look at my track on an aerial map and it will make a lot of sense. Hope you have a great time!
Posted by:
neek on May 27, 2021 09:08 PM