Sawtooths 7/19

[2eez4life]

If anyone would like to chime in I would greet opinions on some of the options I have drafted up for a Sawtooths backpacking trip 4 days Fri-Mon this July.
Me and my crew and young(ish) and fit and can hike! Plus this trip the mentality of less is more reigns.

Let me give a few sample itineraries, in order of my present preference.
Plan A: Alpine creek lake trail. The ultimate goal being to cross of Snowyside pass and into Flytrip basin. The rational being it is least visited, we want solitude and plenty of fishing options. One of the potential downsides is that it turns cross county more or less once the 3 mile trail comes to an end. The pass may be not be safe to cross.

Plan B: Cramer Lakes trail. This being the classic but likely crowded option. Epic start on the ferry. Out and back. We could first day make a side venture to Alice lake or whatever.
Potential downside is the good camp spots might be taken as we are coming in on the weekend.

Plan C: Loop hike, not sure what. I like loop hikes.

thanks,

 

[wabenho]

There are others here who know far more about the Sawtooths than I, but I did have a recent trip there. I have only been to the area of your Plan B (I believe you saw my TR). One reason we first chose the Redfish Creek trail is that there were options to move around without going over a pass. We knew the snow would be an issue early in the season, so we planned for an area where we could scout out some passes and climb them if we wanted, but we also had options to jump around without crossing passes.

I'm not sure if snow will still be an issue when you go, but you could do something similar: go to Alpine Lake and if the pass is clear, go over to Baron Lakes. Or go up to Cramer and if the snow isn't bad, head up to Hidden and beyond if you want. Or if the snow is still bad on the passes, you could do some combination of Saddleback, Alpine and Cramer. You could do this without crossing a high pass and the stream fords would be fine.

There were not many people in the area when we were there. 2 groups of 2 rock climbers each at Saddleback (Sunday night) and 1 group of 2 backpackers at Cramer (Monday night). We gave each other space and it still felt like we were all alone. We did encounter several groups of day-hikers in the first few miles of trail out of the Redfish Inlet TH. Seems to be popular for Redfish Lodge visitors to take the shuttle over for a short day-hike.

From what I could tell, you can't go wrong. No matter where you end up you will have excellent scenery and a great experience!

 

[Parma]

Search "Sawtooths" (titles only), there are multiple trip reports to give you some great options

 

[2eez4life]

There are others here who know far more about the Sawtooths than I, but I did have a recent trip there. I have only been to the area of your Plan B (I believe you saw my TR). One reason we first chose the Redfish Creek trail is that there were options to move around without going over a pass. We knew the snow would be an issue early in the season, so we planned for an area where we could scout out some passes and climb them if we wanted, but we also had options to jump around without crossing passes.

I'm not sure if snow will still be an issue when you go, but you could do something similar: go to Alpine Lake and if the pass is clear, go over to Baron Lakes. Or go up to Cramer and if the snow isn't bad, head up to Hidden and beyond if you want. Or if the snow is still bad on the passes, you could do some combination of Saddleback, Alpine and Cramer. You could do this without crossing a high pass and the stream fords would be fine.

There were not many people in the area when we were there. 2 groups of 2 rock climbers each at Saddleback (Sunday night) and 1 group of 2 backpackers at Cramer (Monday night). We gave each other space and it still felt like we were all alone. We did encounter several groups of day-hikers in the first few miles of trail out of the Redfish Inlet TH. Seems to be popular for Redfish Lodge visitors to take the shuttle over for a short day-hike.

From what I could tell, you can't go wrong. No matter where you end up you will have excellent scenery and a great experience!

We are headed up next weekend. Hopefully most he passes will be doable. Was the Cramer divide doable when you were there? It didn't look bad.

 

[wabenho]

I guess it depends on your definition of doable. Almost anything is doable with proper skills and equipment. Here are a couple of shots of that area:


I believe the trail goes up just to the right of center in the pic above.

Here is the pic from the same location, zoomed in:


These were taken on July 1, 2019. As you can see there is some snow all the way down to the shores of Upper Cramer. To me, it seemed like the pass was holding a lot of snow and not something we wanted to attempt. Not sure how much snow melts in two weeks.

You could try calling the Stanley Ranger Station and/or Sawtooth Mountain Guides. I found each source to have nuggets of useful info.

 

[TeamJenkins17]

If anyone would like to chime in I would greet opinions on some of the options I have drafted up for a Sawtooths backpacking trip 4 days Fri-Mon this July.
Me and my crew and young(ish) and fit and can hike! Plus this trip the mentality of less is more reigns.

Let me give a few sample itineraries, in order of my present preference.
Plan A: Alpine creek lake trail. The ultimate goal being to cross of Snowyside pass and into Flytrip basin. The rational being it is least visited, we want solitude and plenty of fishing options. One of the potential downsides is that it turns cross county more or less once the 3 mile trail comes to an end. The pass may be not be safe to cross.

Plan B: Cramer Lakes trail. This being the classic but likely crowded option. Epic start on the ferry. Out and back. We could first day make a side venture to Alice lake or whatever.
Potential downside is the good camp spots might be taken as we are coming in on the weekend.

Plan C: Loop hike, not sure what. I like loop hikes.

thanks,

I’d try starting out at the Hell Roaring Creek trailhead, spend your first night near profile lake which is off trail and absolutely beautiful, then head down passed Imogene lake (very beautiful) to either Edna or Ardeth lake and camp there and then head back up yellow belly trail towards the hellroaring Creek trailhead again and try camping near McDonald lake and back out. This should keep you semi away from people and make for a pretty epic trip, however you are going in very very peak season for the Sawtooths. I’d think the passes would be doable for your trip, it’s been in the mid 80’s for over a week and will be that way over the next week as well. Most importantly just go and have fun, it’s beautiful country out there!

 

[2eez4life]

I guess it depends on your definition of doable. Almost anything is doable with proper skills and equipment. Here are a couple of shots of that area:
View attachment 79388

I believe the trail goes up just to the right of center in the pic above.

Here is the pic from the same location, zoomed in:
View attachment 79389

These were taken on July 1, 2019. As you can see there is some snow all the way down to the shores of Upper Cramer. To me, it seemed like the pass was holding a lot of snow and not something we wanted to attempt. Not sure how much snow melts in two weeks.

You could try calling the Stanley Ranger Station and/or Sawtooth Mountain Guides. I found each source to have nuggets of useful info.

We aren't planning on bringing spikes or anything like that, so hopefully conditions will have improved 20 days from then.

Thanks for the nuggets.

 

[2eez4life]

I’d try starting out at the Hell Roaring Creek trailhead, spend your first night near profile lake which is off trail and absolutely beautiful, then head down passed Imogene lake (very beautiful) to either Edna or Ardeth lake and camp there and then head back up yellow belly trail towards the hellroaring Creek trailhead again and try camping near McDonald lake and back out. This should keep you semi away from people and make for a pretty epic trip, however you are going in very very peak season for the Sawtooths. I’d think the passes would be doable for your trip, it’s been in the mid 80’s for over a week and will be that way over the next week as well. Most importantly just go and have fun, it’s beautiful country out there!

I’d try starting out at the Hell Roaring Creek trailhead, spend your first night near profile lake which is off trail and absolutely beautiful, then head down passed Imogene lake (very beautiful) to either Edna or Ardeth lake and camp there and then head back up yellow belly trail towards the hellroaring Creek trailhead again and try camping near McDonald lake and back out. This should keep you semi away from people and make for a pretty epic trip, however you are going in very very peak season for the Sawtooths. I’d think the passes would be doable for your trip, it’s been in the mid 80’s for over a week and will be that way over the next week as well. Most importantly just go and have fun, it’s beautiful country out there!

Thanks for the suggestion, that sounds pretty solid.