CCC Road: Upper Trailhead, Bessemer Mountain & Quartz Creek/Lake Blethen — Sunday, Mar. 27, 2022

I went up Quartz Mountain ridge to find some gear I lost last month. I found a glove, but my black Grivel ice axe is still missing (expensive lesson learned: never take black or neutral color gear on bushwhacks without colorful tape or something similar 😕). Found a lot of other random stuff uphill though from what looked like an old forestry operation.

The CCC trail is in much better shape than it was a month ago--all of the blowdowns had been cleared to the spot where I started my bushwhack uphill.

Other items of note:

• The ridge is a heck of a lot nicer to negotiate in snow. I don't understand why people try climbing Quartz in the summertime 😂.
• The big creek crossing is raging right now. I brought my stiff leather Asolos, had trekking poles, and did ok, but some other folks in trail runners were having some difficulty hopping over logs upstream trying to stay dry.
• Snow has pretty much disappeared below 3k' and is minimal starting along the ridge. There seemed to be a lot more on the E face in the shade.
• Mosquitos are starting to wake up in the Middle Fork. They weren't too bad down on the forest floor, but they were kind of ridiculous on the climb up the ridge.