Distance: 7.4 mi.
Elevation Gain: 4000 ft.
Monday, July 5 was the observed Independence Day. I had wanted to get into the mountain loop to be able to get home at a reasonable time and not deal with long weekend traffic. Independence Lake and Peak were hard to pass up given the holiday. I decided to leave nice and early before 5 am.
The drive was uneventful and FR 4060 from Perry Creek is in pretty decent shape up until about 1/4 mile before Coal Lake. Here there was a large washout with a tree and large rocks blocking the road. There is small area to turn around an places for few cars to park here. There were probably 4-5 other cars here on a long weekend.
The walk over the washout was quite easy and then the road walk past Coal Lake and on to Independence Lake trailhead were quite easy. The trail to Independence Lake was also in very good shape. Arriving at the lake I tried to fish for a little bit but didn’t see any signs of fish. I did a couple as they packed up and hiked out from hiking at the lake. They were the last people I saw all day. I continued on the trail toward North Lake which was pretty obvious up to about 4,400′ where the trail was covered in snow for the most part. I was able to follow occasional flagging and signs of the trail and make it to the ridge where the snow was more melted out again. I followed the trail around to the north before it drops to the east toward north lake. I had intended to stay on the ridge toward Bluegrass Butte but once I tried to traverse I realized I had dropped to far. Rather than reascend I just continued down to the lake. I eventually lost the trail and descided to just glissade down the snow gully below Independence to the lake. this was definitely faster than trying to follow the trail. The lake was really beautiful, probably half covered in ice yet and being surrounded on the west side by cliffy slabs right into the lake.
I fished for a while on this south side of the lake. The water was incredibly clear and I was afraid of spooking the fish but again I saw no signs of any fish at all. At 10:30 I decided I better just move on and try to climb Independence. I made a direct line up the snow gully to the ridge line west of the peak. I followed the ridge line to the east until reaching a sheer rock cliff. I traversed on the south side of this cliff on what seemed liked a pretty obvious path. It kept going and getting slightly less obvious but was littered with mountain goat fur. On the due south side of the peak it traversed some pretty steep loose gullies and I almost turned around but I was able t carefully make my way across to reach manageable but steep grassy meadows. This is kind of where the southeast ridge of the peak meets up and I traversed up and right until meeting the east ridge of the peak. I was able to follow steep meadows, occasional snow, and easy scrambling to the summit. I didn’t hang around long and just before noon I decided to head back down.
I backtracked until reaching the southeast ridge again where I decided to head directly to Pass Lake. I ended just to the west of the ridge for much of the descent in occasional talus fields but mostly pretty open forest. This was mostly easy going all the way to Pass Lake. Here I fished briefly and finally had lunch. This lake was smaller and less spectacular than the others. I also fished briefly and saw no evidence of fish. After finishing my food I made my way down the trail from here back to the road and then back to my car by 1:45. This was a fun trip with some unpleasant cross country travel and some failed fishing. Not sure I would return to Independence Peak but it was a fun thing to do on the July 4th weekend.
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Recommended brew:
Gear Used:
- Day pack
- Fishing pole
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Helmet
- Microspikes
- Trail runners
- Trekking poles
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