Beautiful overnight trip filled with sunshine, larches, pikas, but sadly no goats.
The road: A few potholes, but my Camry had no problems making it never bottomed out either. Worth noting that there were quite a few trailers waving Trump flags camped on the left/creek side as we drove to the trailhead. We didn't interact with any of the campers but the flags put me a little on edge based on my ethnic background.
Parking lot: Maybe 20 spots in the lot, more spots along the road. A picnic table and bathroom at the trailhead but the bathroom was not in the best condition when we were there - bring your own toilet paper!
Trail: Overall great condition! Pretty exposed and hot but we felt lucky to get sun. There are a few sections where the trail feels eroded and more care should be taken when passing through. There seems to be two popular trails for the last climb to the lake that split off at about 6400' elevation; I've only ever taken the left trail going up but people who had taken both told us the left trail was indeed the better path and required less scrambling. There are a few cairns to mark the way going up on the left trail, but in general as long as you keep heading up to the ridge you should be fine. I've included our GPS track for reference; it feels like we took a well-trodden path.
Campsites: Lots of options for camping. Most campsites are in the lower basin (take the right trail at Ingalls Pass), but we did see some campers on the upper (left) trail. There's a backcountry toilet for both upper and lower trails which remains the best backcountry toilet view I've been to; bring your own toilet paper. No reliable water source until Headlight Basin other than the creek at the trailhead; small creeks run through the basin on both trails. Both times I've overnighted here the wind has really picked up in the afternoon to evening and this time we found a site nestled in the rocks and blocked by some fallen trees to shield us from the wind. Camping on the lower trail meant more gain to get to the lake, but we enjoyed walking through the basin and amongst the larches.
Wildlife: Three pika (along the trail and in the basin) but sadly no goats! We heard a fellow hiker exclaim across the lake, "WHERE are the GOATS!". Agreed.
Bugs: None to report!
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