Had the evening free so decided to trail run as far as I could from sunrise mine trailhead towards vesper and sperry peaks. The trail is in good shape and the main river crossing (south fork of the Stilli) is a minor obstacle at this point (aim for the large tree that's slightly inclined then hop onto the adjacent rock and then onto the opposite bank - simple). Its certainly not summer any longer, which I found out once I reached the basin as it started to pour and I donned my raincoat (first time in a long while). Headlee Pass was steep as usual, but no snow at this point just yet. I reached the first patches of snow just after the pass on the bounder field before you reach the lake. If you're heading to Vesper Peak, cross the river at the point where it drops away into the valley, don't go towards the lake. I was heading to the lake so I followed the edge of the river. If you don't do this, you end up climbing over snow covered boulders which is really time consuming and unnecessarily dangerous. There's plenty of snow up there already (~3 inches of fresh, wet snow) and the temps once inside the bowl were between 35 and 40F. Bring layers - I would have been freezing without my puffy. I stayed at the lake about 20 minutes, at which point my numb fingers told me it was time to go, and I headed back down. Only saw one other guy on trail who had hiked up with the intention of camping at the lake but bailed after seeing how far he still had to go and observing the worsening cloud cover.
All in all a great post-work outing. Car - Lake: 1 hr, 40 min, Lake - Car: 1 hr, 8 min. I had about 10 lbs on my back and ran the flat portions of the trail (and ran most of the way back down) so factor this time accordingly to your situation.
Important note: I got a bunch of gravel in the motor mounts of my Mazda3. The road is rough, but passable (there's 2 major obstacles that are doable with care with a low clearance vehicle) however I will definitely be bringing a higher clearance car next time b/c you really are risking damage to your vehicle on this gravel road.
More pics of trips around the PNW: Follow @jdodger316 on Instagram.
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