We then took the cutoff to the amphitheater.
There, Spitfire scampered (er, scrambled) her way up to the ridge between the north summit (minor) and the true south summit. I was a distant second. Once here the views were gorgeous on this bluebird day.
Having quite a bit of ground to cover this day, we skipped either summit, saving that for another day. Instead making a short loop across and down the middle section of the ridge.
Even from the base, the scenery was amazing.
The east side of the true summit
From there, we made our way, counter-clockwise, down to the south side of Wapiki Lake on more than one use trail. The lake is just beautiful.
To complete this little loop, we dropped down another 200’ to the Lemei Tr. junction and then ascended 600’ elevation gain back up to the 5600’ Lemei Rock Cutoff Tr. Along the way were some great viewpoints.
Back at the junction
We saw what appeared to be the approach to get on the northwest ridge route up to the Lemei (minor) summit on our way in…
…so we decided to take a closer look on the way out.
Once we were back on the trail just past the Cultus Lake jct. we jumped off-trail onto a ridge which took us up to a string of meadows with a user trail leading us up to the summit of Bird Mt. With the clear skies the views were just astounding up there, too.
St. Helens
Lemei Rock – Mt. Hood
Mt. Adams
Mt. Rainier
Rainier, Sawtooth Mt., Pt. 5568 (Little Bird), and Adams
Coming back down the ridge immediately below Bird
We were getting a little pressed for daylight while crossing the CCT meadows on the way back to the TH, mostly since there was so much scenery to take in throughout the day,...
…but at a fairly rapid pace we made it out without the headlamps.
The fall colors looked like they were beginning to wind down, but were spectacular nonetheless. An ideal hike for an above average autumn day. Around 18 miles / 3800’ elevation gain.
