So beautiful! This is my second time on this hike. Trail is in great condition. Road is still rough in places so be careful. I would not take a low clearance vehicle down this road though. The gold was sparkling. Please don’t park crazy on the road . Stay to one side. Don’t be a tool. Emergency vehicles need access and others need room to get through and out. The road will take an hour to get down.

A friend and I hiked Carne Mountain on Sunday, October 6th. 

The road to the trailhead is long and rough, but if you are practiced in driving rutted, rocky, potholed forest service roads I imagine you could handle it in any car. The road to Phelps Creek Trailhead has been freshly re-graded, so if you remember that nightmare section of road from years past, it is no longer a concern! Cars stretched out of the parking lot and well down the road when we started hiking, around 9am, but roadside parking is abundant.

The hike itself is phenomenal. One of my new favorites in Washington. The first section is through the forest, but you have views of the mountains and valley through the trees. Then, you enter an open slope that leads to a small meadow, around mile 3. There is a small stream at the start of the meadow section if you need to filter water - this is the only water we observed on the whole route. The meadow is full of larches at the moment, ranging from mostly yellow to a few light green. Larches continue to dot the landscape, as you ascend out of the meadow to reach the ridge. From the ridge, you can see down into the next valley, and it is gorgeous. After taking a left at the ridge, you reach the small summit of Carne Mountain, complete with a land survey marker! Views in every direction are phenomenal - you can see Clark, Glacier, Fortress, Sinister, Seven Fingered Jack, Maude, Icebox - the list goes on. I could spend hours up there with a map and not get tired of peak finding! 

Alas, my friend and I were only out for a day hike, so after eating lunch on the ridge and admiring the scenery for a while longer, we had to return to the car. Like every trip I go on to the Glacier Peak Wilderness, I wish I could've stayed longer, and my list for future trips is getting longer and longer. What a beautiful place, I can't wait to go back!

Wonderful 3 day tour of Mt Maude area, camps at Leroy Basin and Ice Lakes, exiting the Carne HR. The weather ranged from rain, snow, sleet to glorious sunshine. This area is very popular, for good reason, so will mainly focus on conditions and some photos.  

TL;DR;

• Larches:
  
  • High up ( e.g. ice lakes, carne summit ): 0-1 weeks to peak
  • Mid-level ( e.g. Leroy basin ): 1-2 weeks to peak
• Mount Maude: Straightforward, but long, walkup with amazing views
• Ice Lakes: Always beautiful, but even better in the snow/larches
• Carne HR: Pretty good shape except one section with loose rock
• Snow: 1/2" Leroy, 0-4" Ice Lakes. Melting fast past two days
• People:
  • Leroy: 5? parties
  • Ice Lakes: 15? parties ( but spread out over large area )
  • Carne HR: 20? parties
  • Carne Mountain: 100? people, majority day trippers
• Was wonderful to be joined by C, and picked up two new great friends, W & G, at ice lakes

ACCESS

• Most vehicles can probably make it slowly, but higher clearance preferred
• Chiwawa river road ( FS6200 ) is long.
  • First section is paved
  • Second section is unpaved, stony and wash-boarded in places
• Phelps Creek Road:
  • Surprisingly good shape thanks to recent grading and graveling of the worst spots

LEROY BASIN

• After the flats of Phelps Creek, tilts up steeply for the first half
• No real issues beyond couple easy blowdowns, but brush was drenching in the rain
• Basin has at least half dozen good sites, nestled under the watchful eye of Seven Fingered Jack
• Was a cold wet night as a front tore through, with 1/2" of snow
• Felt lucky though as folks at Ice Lakes got 40+mph winds
• Toilet vault ok, but the top could use a couple screws
• Various scramble plans abandoned due to WX, so after unfreezing our shoes, continued on...

LEROY TO FREEZER PASS

• Fairly straightforward
• Once reaching the pass before freezer pass, you can:
  • Traverse high under upper Maude cliffs, or do as we did...
  • Traverse into basin, then climb direct to pass
• Freezer pass is a wonderful reveal moment

FREEZER PASS TO MOUNT MAUDE

• Drop down a little, then ascend talus before hooking W to meet ridge at ~8140'
• Then follow open slopes to just before summit rocks
• Head for notch just left of summit, then wrap around for final summit
• Basically a long walk up, but...
• Oh my, what an amazing viewpoint!
  • Usual volcanoes, Buck, Dakobed, Chiwawas, Eastern WA, Entiat peaks, etc. etc.

ICE LAKES

• From Freezer pass easy slopes take you the scenic upper ice lakes
• Most camps are on the bluffs above the S shore, before the outflow cliff
  • Note map shows camp site E of outflow...
  • But most coming from Freezer camp W of outflow
• Popular spot, but there are plenty of campsites

LOWER ICE LAKES

• As C & W set off for a late ascent of S Spectacle, G and I did a tour of the lower ice lakes
• The hardest part is getting down off the bluffs to get to the Upper Lake outflow creek
  • There is a cairned gully on the NE part of the bluffs, but looked a little awkward with snow, so...
  • Was shown ( thanks! ) a non-obvious way on the E flank of the bluffs that ended in a class 2-3 ( depending on how tall you are ) move down a slot
• Once on the eastern shores, easy and beautiful ramblings before descending to lower Ice Lakes
• After walking around the stunning lower ice lakes, followed easy slopes SW up a broad valley
• Regaining the upper lakes is off trail:
  • At about 48.12674, -120.79470, followed easy, but loose rock gully, climber's left of outlet stream
  • At about 48.12741, -120.79534, an easy west trending gully pops you out at the top of the bluffs and level ground

CARNE HIGH ROUTE

• After a stunning sunset and sunrise, climbed back up to Freezer Pass, and started the Carne HR
• The first section has a short, but loose rock section, not difficult, but watch those below
• Next couple section have a couple places you may need to check the map, but otherwise straight-foward
• Last section is well established trail
• The hardest part is not constantly stopping to take yet more larch pictures

CARNE MOUNTAIN

• After ascending Carne's East flank, joined the crowds of day trippers
• Was busy, but everyone super friendly, and happily to be basking in larch-ness
• Couple blowdowns, one a tad awkward, others easy
• Stream running near Carne Basin Camp

Always amazed at how lucky we are to live in the PNW.

Wonderful hike today!!! Went with my partner and our leashed dog. Got to the trailhead at 8:30am and there was a full parking lot and a few cars already starting to line the road. The road in was rocky and slow going but nothing concerning or impassable. No toilets at the trailhead but there is a nice pit toilet along the way at Finner Creek campground about 11 miles from the TH! 

You start climbing pretty soon after starting. In the beginning there are some eroded and rooty spots that are a bit overgrown. Basically you never really stop climbing until you reach the basin at about 6100’ which is where the larches begin. This is incredible! This is also where a light layer of snow is on the ground, which will all most likely melt by tomorrow. Traction is not necessary. The larches here in the basin are still yellow-green lime colored. As you keep climbing more and more larches are golden and the panoramic mountain views really start to open up. Make a LEFT towards Rock Creek for the final push upwards to reach the summit of Carne mountain. 

Reached the summit just before noon and had a nice lunch. Exposed but no wind! Really such a beautiful day - such a treat. Passed tons of folks as we were going down. Half the dogs were off leash but all very well trained with nice owners as well, all of which gave way/leashed up for my pup (thank you!!) 

Can’t wait to do this one again someday!!!