Thornton Lakes and Trappers Peak — Wednesday, Jul. 10, 2024

Three of us in our 70s only intended to hike to the signed trail junction at about 4.2 miles per the WTA description. We got started at 10:00 a.m. with several cars in the parking lot. We got to the NCNP sign "at roughly mile four" in 2 hours 23 minutes. This led us to hope we were 0.2 from the trail junction but it took us 35' going up (and 28' coming down). I'm sure we were doing more than 1 mph so that leg is probably more like 0.6 or more. Perhaps the reference to the NCNP sign should say "at roughly 3.5 miles". After we took a break at the trail junction, and seeing that there are no views there, we decided we had enough energy to something more. After chatting with some parties coming down from Trappers Peak we decided to head that way till we got some views. Above what I would call a Class III scramble we were rewarded with great views of the three Thornton Lakes and Mt. Triumph. The third, upper, lake was still frozen. To the East were great views of surrounding mountains, including those above New Halem which included a nice view of the townsite. I think Mt. Baker must have been out of view behind Mt. Triumph, to the NW. So we didn't do Trappers Peak itself but the strenuous hike was well worth it for the views we got. Not back to the trailhead until 5:30.