We spent the weekend doing two fabulous dayhikes with Sadie's Driver and Hiker Jim. Saturday morning we hiked to Hannegan Peak in mostly cloudy weather. The trail is now snow free to Hannegan Pass, and the campsites below the pass are 50% melted out. We encountered only patches of snow below the summit, and the summit is snow free. There are a few nice campsites on the summit, but soon there will be no snow left for a water source.
We spent the night car camping at the Hannegan Trail Head, among noisy neighbors. Sunday morning brought clear skies for the hike to Yellow Aster Butte.
Once again, there are only a few snow patches on the entire route.We continued from the ""false summit"" to the westerly true summit. In her book ""75 Scrambles in Wa"", Peggy Goldman suggests an alternate route down from the true summit, which we did. Just below the summit we headed westerly from a low point on the ridge, dropping to the basin below. Four people went down before us with just poles, but we were glad we had ice axes since the snow was fairly hard. It was a fun glissade. We then hiked by a couple of the tarns, and then ascended 200 ft. on trail back to the junction with the boot path to Yellow Aster Butte. This made a fun loop.
Both of these are prime dayhikes or backpack trips.
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