Excelsior Peak via Damfino Lakes Trail — Friday, Oct. 7, 2022

The colors are STILL lovely all along this hike. Not super bright - some plants are simply desiccating due to the dry hot summer - but it's still beautiful. 

The road has degraded somewhat since I was last here exactly a year ago. Still passable with a sedan if you're cautious here and there, but I was happy to have a higher-clearance vehicle. The pit toilet was stinky but clean. 

You'll be hiking in about 2 miles of full shade and 1 mile of no shade. Remember your sunscreen. :-) And even though I wrote that the bugs weren't too bad, if I had had some bug repellent I would have used it. We need a nice frost to solve this problem. 

The WTA mileage appears to be a bit off. It says 5.6 miles round-trip but Strava has told me twice that it's 6.1 miles RT. Not a huge difference but I just thought I'd mention it for anyone who might care. 

There were no clouds in the sky, but there was enough smoke in the air to almost completely hide Mt Shuksan; if I hadn't known it was there I wouldn't have seen its barely-visible peak. Baker was visible but partly obscured. 

This is one of my favorite hikes, especially in the early fall.