Since the technical parts of this trail have been well reported recently, here are a few other things I found noteworthy today (and some slightly different hike pics):
The biggest obstacle on the trail today was this week's heatwave. Most of this trail is in the sun and starting early really seems to be key. I started up at 8:30am and managed to hike all the way to Headlee Pass before the sun really hit the trail which helped a lot.
I hiked out around 2 and some of the groups coming in looked like they were suffering a bit. Some also appeared not to have enough water. It would be wise to carry a filter here. I had to refill water today quite a bit more than I usually would.
Route finding can be challenging in some of the talus fields in the basin below Headlee Pass. Personally, I didn't really find the cairn placement helpful here and got off trail a couple of times. On the way up there were four other hikers and there was some nice crowd sourcing of the route when it was confusing. On the way back down I used GPS to stay on track. I found route finding on the upper slab portion of the peak easier than the lower basin.
There were quite a few blueberries higher up on the trail. Above the lake there are some beautiful wildflower patches, particularly lupine. On the slab scramble I found a pair of ptarmigans and got to watch them for a while (second pic). There were a lot of pikas today, particularly in the morning.
There were no bugs all the way up to the top, and then for some reason there were a few hanging around the summit. Nothing was bad enough to be annoying though.
I wandered over to Vesper Lake after the peak. The water was nice and cool, but the lack of shade shortened my time there.
There were a moderate amount of people on the trail for a Monday, not a lot, but enough that there was always someone around. Everyone I came across was in high spirits and super friendly.
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