Three Pinnacles, Lost, Many Trails, Johnny Peaks

Lost Peak (8,464ft), Many Trails Peak (8,241ft), Johnny Peak (8,211ft) , Three Pinnacles (8,124ft)

Looking up at Johnny Peak from Johnny Lake

Sept 20, 2020, 2:15am – 8:45pm

33.5 miles, 12,300ft gain

Eric

The smoke finally cleared out of the mountains after the rain Friday and Saturday, so Saturday evening I drove out to the Billy Goat trailhead and went to sleep in the back of the car. Some pesky trailhead mice somehow snuck in and kept me from sleeping for a while rustling around, but I managed to get in a few hours of sleep.

I got up at 2am and was moving soon after. My plan was do do a big loop hitting some WA top 200 peaks with a long and fun ridge run (I got good beta for these peaks from trip reports from Milda T, FWB, John P, Scott R, and Dan L). I was excited to be back in the area around Lost Peak, since I remember that feeling like one of the most remote places in Washington the last time I’d been there in 2018.

The route

I was a bit worried the trails in the area would be in tough shape after the 2018 McCleod fire, but luckily that was mostly not the case. I started by hiking up the Hidden Lakes trail, and after a hour few hours upon three tents pitched right in the middle of the trail near lucky pass. I tiptoed around them, and that turned out to be my closest encounter with other people the whole day.

By sunrise I was at Cougar Lake and started up my first peak, Many Trails. I went to the west end of the lake and waded across the inlet in thigh-deep water. From there I bushwhacked steeply up to the northwest ridge, then followed the ridge to the summit. Interestingly, despite the name, Many Trails peak in fact has no trail leading to it. I took a break on the top as dense clouds enveloped the summit. It turned out my friend Fred was the last person to sign in over a year ago.

The view from Johnny Peak

I soon followed the ridge south as the clouds cleared. The Johnny Creek valley below had escaped the McCleod Fire and the larch trees were turning bright yellow. I followed Scott Rice’s GPS track and dropped down off the ridge before Pt 7850, then traversed over to Johnny Lakes. That would have been an awesome place to camp if I’d brought overnight gear, but I was just doing a

Lago in the distance

day trip. I filled up 3 liters of water at the lake in preparation for a long waterless ridge traverse.

From the lake I hiked up to the saddle south of Johnny Peak, then traversed a bit on the west face and easily up to the summit. It appears “Trailblazer” is the name Fay Pullen gave the peak in the summit register, though Johnny Peak is the name on peakbagger. It’s interesting that the word “trail” is in multiple peaks up there that don’t actually have trails to them.

I descended the ridge south, then scrambled over Pass Butte and along to Lost Peak by 2:30pm. There were excellent views across the valley to Lago and Ptarmigan Peaks, and I had fond memories of topping out on Lost Peak at sunset one July day in 2018 after climbing Blackcap, Osceola, Carru, Lago, and Ptarmigan in a big loop. Luckily I still had a few hours before sunset this time.

Looking back at Three Pinnacles

It was a fun ridge run south of lost, over a few minor bumps, to the summit of Three Pinnacles. I was surprised there was no cairn on the summit, but there is now. I tagged the Middle Summit, which is apparently only 1 ft shorter than the north summit, then descended down the east ridge. I followed the ridge to just before point 6638, then descended a few thousand feet of trees and talus to the Lost River. Interestingly the river bed was completely dry.

The river bed was almost like a wide trail, which I followed upstream to Drake Creek. There I bushwhacked a bit until I found the abandoned Drake Creek trail. The trail was followable for a little while, but then disappeared in the burn zone. Luckily I was able to bushwhack up the rest of the way back to the Hidden Lakes trail by sunset. I then hiked back in the dark, reaching the car by 8:45pm. It was a long drive home but M&Ms and Red Bull helped me stay awake til 2am when I got back to Seattle.