Luna Peak — Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019

Berries are going off, leave your food (and hopes and dreams) behind and forage your way to the summit!
The bushwack was both heinous (is a true cascades bushwack anything else?) and not too bad (lots of magically appearing bootpacks that allow for progress but dissapear right when you need them most).
Triangulating previous GPX, listed in trip reports on this site and elsewhere around the web, will help with the route finding. Additional beta, for those interested:
- huge/excellent log crossings for Big Beaver - we crossed as soon as you can see the river, about 17mi from hwy20.
- Crossing Access Creek higher than you think is the way to go - going early will lead you to cairns and flagging on the south side, but it leads into a pretty dense/awful amount of slide alder between small talus fields. Crossing at ~3800/3900 is the way to go. Stay patient/save yourself bushwack time.
- The gullies leading to the basin traverse are pretty loose - lots of choss/ nonsense, particularly on the way down.

The high country was stunning - some of the best views in NCNP, though you certainly have to earn them.

Trail conditions/reports otherwise: Hwy 20 to the river crossing - ~2 down trees over 17 miles. Amazing. Fast, flat, well-maintained trail.
Above the Bushwack and gully climb: straight forward travel over to the final talus gully-ish climb (on much more solid rock) to Luna Col. Multiple established campsites on the col. If we were to re-do this trip we'd spend a full day up here just soaking in the remoteness and scale of the pickets.

Happy shwacking!