Tough hike but man was it worth it! Larches are at their peak (a few are still lime yellow) and the weather today was incredible. 

Road to the trailhead is pretty rough in some spots, but very doable with a higher clearance car. I wouldn’t feel comfortable driving it in a sedan.

Arrived at the trailhead 8:30am on a Thursday. Lot was half full (mainly folks parking overnight) and only saw 1 other person on my way up. Had the whole summit to myself. Ran into 20 or so people on my way down. 

Trail is overgrown in some spots, but nothing you can’t easily get around. 

The larch report you’ve been waiting for! They’re gorgeous, beginning to turn, only about 30% were golden. Lots of gorgeous lime larches today! Should be prime later this week.

Won’t add too much more. I love this annual larch hike and it’s the earliest I’ve gone, I was just itching to find out how close they were. There was a beautiful during of snow in the surrounding peaks that you could see so clearly on the blue bird day.

I arrived to trailhead just around 11am and there were only ~8-10 cars or so. I saw less than 20 people total (still somewhat busy for a Friday). Trail was clear all through the meadow, there was trace snow headed up in the last ascent. If there is any more precipitation this week I would definitely bring spikes (I meant to pack them just in case and forgot this morning!)

Hiked up to Carne Mountain, continued along the Carne/Leroy High Route to Freezer Pass, dropped down to the upper Ice Lake to camp for a night, and headed out via Leroy Basin.

Road Conditions. The last couple miles of the Chiwawa River Rd were rocky, and the road up to the Phelps Creek Trailhead alternated between rocky and sandy. Unlike in previous years, there were only high-clearance vehicles at the trailhead.

Trail Conditions. Phelps Creek Trail was all smooth sailing, stream crossings were easy to step over. Carne Mountain Trail was also free of obstacles, other than one small blowdown near the bottom, and some shrubby sections. Flowing water in the basin below Carne Mountain. The Carne High Route was a bit of a rollercoaster, but easy to follow for the first two miles, up to Box Creek. Streams indicated as non-intermittent in OpenSteetMap all had some water. If you end up in the meadows at Box Creek, you missed a turn (marked with a large, but slightly off-trail cairn). The trail was on and off for the next mile, but the route was still easy to follow, to the bottom of a large scree field. The next half mile to the "false" pass and then to the actual Freezer Pass was the toughest section of the entire loop: Loose scree on steep, sometimes exposed slopes, felt more like a scramble at times. Plenty of loose screen on the way down to upper Ice Lake, too, but at least your destination is in your face. The trail to Leroy Basin was rougher than the first section of the Carne High Route, but nowhere as bad as the half mile section leading to Freezer Pass. Might be harder to follow early in the season, when snow and rock slides have wiped out bootpaths and cairns. The trail down from Leroy Basin was rougher than expected, very dusty and steep in places, but otherwise easy to follow. Some blowdowns here, but except for one all step-overs.

Highlights. Lots of pikas and marmots along the trail, plus a small group of mountain goats at the upper Ice Lake. Some early fall colors, but larches (of which there are plenty) were still 99% green. Zero blueberries.

Bug Status. Flying ant and ladybug convention on top of Carne Mountain, didn't notice any bugs elsewhere.

Crowds. 20-30 cars at the trailhead Saturday at 10:30am, but didn't encounter anyone on the first day. Next day we noticed one other party camped at the lake, some climbers at Freezer Pass, one party on the way down from Leroy Basin, and 2 or 3 parties on the final stretch of the Phelps Creek Trail back to the trailhead. As a bonus, there was no traffic on Hwy 2!

Buck Creek Trail, Carne Mountain and Phelps Creek Trail have been logged out by WRRD Trail Crew.  Buck Creek, Phelps and Carne are clear to stock travel, as they do every year since the fire, the crew cut 100s of logs on Buck Creek.  The bridge is still out on Buck Creek, and will unfortunately remain so for some time, unless there are more complaints about it. There is a ford below the old bridge site and a log across the creek above it that can be tight-roped or butt-scooted across.  The horse ford is less than ideal, but it is passable to experienced stock users.  Buck Creek Tr remains quite brushy above the burn - mosquitoes are dying down, mostly black flies and hornets now. 

There are plenty of good campsites on Buck Creek and Phelps Creek Trails - use caution when camping in the burn or in stands of dead trees.  Camp on durable surfaces and avoid camping in the meadows at Spider Meadow and Buck Pass.  Plentiful water on both Buck and Phelps as of a few weeks ago, lots of little side creeks - more  Carne Mtn doesn't have any camping or water available until up at the top at Carne Basin.  Follow Carne Mtn trail past the basin up to the old lookout site for a great view of the entire Trinity drainage system.  

Really one of my favorite parts of the district.  

Did the Carne High Route loop coming out via Leroy Basin and Phelps Creek, summited Carne, Freezer Box, Maude, and Seven Fingered Jack along the way. Camped at upper Ice Lake (incredible). Lots of great established tent sites to pick from.

Soul-fulfilling trip in many ways. Temperatures were perfect, only a few bugs, snow patches on routes easy to avoid, and not many people until close to the trail split-off to go up 7FJ.

Road is ROUGH, lots of slow careful driving, but I made it in my off-roading older Civic, no lift kit 😎 didn't see any other sedans like it in the parking lot...

Water was more abundant than expected, didn't need to carry more than a liter at a time! Overall the "high route" was much more lush and forested than I expected...

Lots of marmots, pikas, chipmunks, larches...

These places are very special. Take care of it! I kept to rock hopping in meadow areas trying extremely hard not to step on plants. Ice Lakes didn't seem to offer any good (duff/dirt) options for catholes so I packed my poop out.