Some drove over the night before and others the morning of, but we all met at the Twisp Bakery around 10:00am. After a last minute errand or two we took off up the Twisp River Road for the South Creek Campground and the trail head for South Creek/Louis Lake (Trail #401/428). Both are well graded and maintained gaining 2100' in 5.3 miles. A pleasant afternoon was spent at the lake, catching up, swimming and relaxing.
The following morning we went around the south side of Louis Lake and scrambled SW over much talus to a smaller lake 450' above. From there, over much more talus, we angled west and then north to a 7200' saddle between Pt. 7782 and Gibb Mtn. (Pt. 8142). In the picture pages that follow, I've marked Pt. 7782 as (W) and (S) because there are actually two shown on the map. One is (W)est of Gibb and one is (S)outh. From the saddle, we followed the ridge west to the top.
Narrow and dramatic, falling sharply away on three sides, the actual high point (maybe 18" higher than where we stood) lay across a small and very exposed notch. Tempted by proximity, the first few steps down to the notch found a loose boulder that shifted underfoot, threatening to become part of the talus field hundreds of feet below. Made our side of the notch all the more attractive (to me at least). An alternative route from the other side didn't look promising either so we called a summit where we were.
For our descent back to Louis Lake we elected not to return to the saddle, rather drop more southerly, following higher ground and the creek before heading east toward the upper lake. Brushier and somewhat steeper that way.
Given the short hike out, we slept late the next morning and still made it to Winthrop for lunch before driving home. Very nice area but without snow cover you'll need to like rock hopping. Of course with snow cover, a fondness for post holing would be required. Would like to go back for Reynolds and Rennie one day.
|