Hessong Rock and Mount Pleasant, Spray Park & Flett Glacier — Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2023

The Basics:

• Road: Mowich Lk Rd…. washboard pretty much the entire 15 miles of dirt.
• Mowich CG: Only two tents today!  Good for those folks. 
• Parking: 50% full at Mowich Lake.  Lined a mile down the road for Tolmie on my way home.
• Wildfire Smoke: It was prevalent this morning. I could smell it and it muted the fall colors this morning.  The smoke did blow through the area once the inversion layer lifted and the wind picked up.
• Crowds: I only saw 3 groups today.  6 people total.  Rather shocking for as busy as Tolmie was.

I will break my hike down into sections.

Hessong Rock and Mt Pleasant:  I started the day at Mowich Lake taking the Spray Park trail to the connector trail that brought me to the saddle between the two.  I headed up to Hessong Rock first hoping to take in the sunrise.  I got there a little early.  It was too cold and windy to stick around.  Headed over to Mt Pleasant hoping for better timing for sunrise.  It worked perfectly.  It was fun to watch the constantly changing lenticular cloud/s during sunrise.  

Mt Pleasant to Spray Park Trail (east end):  I took the trail east that dropped down from Mt Pleasant to the connector trail between Knapsack Pass and Spray Park.  I have always found this trail is one of the best for fall colors in the area.  It did not disappoint!

Spray Park to Flett Glacier Tarn:  Spray Park trail to the Flett Glacier trail turn was carpeted with red fall foliage.  It was pretty stunning.  I had not been on the trail to Flett Glacier tarn since 2006.  In 2006, the trail was well defined, easy to follow and there were never any snow crossings.  Reading trip reports from 2022, it sounded like there may have been some snow crossings.

I was shocked how much the trail to Flett Glacier tarn had not only changed since 2006, it looks like it has changed significantly since 2022.  

The once aquamarine tarn is brown with glacial silt.  The first half of the trail (0.75 mi) from Spray Park to the tarn is consistent with my track from 2006.  At 0.75 mi, the trail has disappeared.  Navigation is required. It looks like there may have been a recent slide/avalanche.  Silt looks somewhat fresh.  

Flett Glacier is significantly different from last year where trip reports were showing ice climbers.  There is no glacier/ice to climb.  In fact all of the snow shown in late August 2022 trip reports is gone!  There is a small portion of an ice field left.  Maybe 100 ft long and 20 ft wide. It can be easily avoided.  No other snow all the way to the glacier.

Spray Park Trail back to the Parking Lot:  Fall colors are most prevalent above 5,500ft as in other areas of the park.  Once below 5,500ft, there are very few fall colors present.  The 2.7 miles from the spur trail to the TH seem to have deteriorated since I was on it last about 3 weeks ago.  The roots seemed more prevalent today. Possibly due to heavy foot traffic?