Alpine Scramble - Bearhead & East Bearhead Mountains

We started at 8am from the Summit Lake trailhead and made good time to Twin Lakes for our first break.  The lake was beautiful with the sun shining through the clouds.  Unfortunately, this would be the only sunshine we would see.

We traveled south on the Carbon trail.  Right before the intersection with Bearhead, there is a small clearing where we could the base of Mt. Rainier to our south, but this would be the only view of the mountain we had the entire time.  Huckleberries are long gone, but mushrooms of different varieties were popping out of the grown.

We continued on the Carbon trail until we came to the intersection with the south ridge of East Bearhead.  We followed game trails up and kept as close to the spine of the ridge until we made the summit at just over 6,000 feet.  There really was not any scrambling involved and there is minimal exposure at the top.  

At the peak, we had absolutely no views, so we just had a leisurely lunch and then back down the way we came.   We returned to the Carbon Trail and headed west towards the intersection with Bearhead.  As we were walking along we were stopped suddenly by this loud cry of an elk mating call just below us in a grove of trees.  Unfortunately, we could not see the elk, but it was a sound that none of us had ever heard while on a hike.

Once at the intersection with Bearhead, we turned north and headed up the 700 feet to the summit of Bearhead.  It is a hike to the top with a clear path.  At the summit, again, absolutely no views, so we ate our brownies and snacks and then hiked back to the base of Bearhead and then back the cars.

Car to car in 7 hours.  A little over 9 miles and about 2,500 feet of cumulative gain.  The views don't always turn out the way we want them, but we still got some good exercise and gained two summits of Mt. Rainier 100 peaks - all in all, a good day!