Alpine Scramble - Florence Peak and Sweet Peak

We had a small Phase 2 group of 4 people on this club scramble.   We met at the Carbon River Ranger Station at 7:45 for a quick socially distanced pre-scramble meeting and then drove to the Carbon River Entrance.  We headed up the Boundary Trail up to 3,800 feet.  We left the trail and headed in generally southeast direction trying to find a faint boot trail or game trail.  Without too much difficulty, we made it to the 4,300 ft saddle and then we headed north to the Sweet Peak summit where we found a small climbing register.  Time to Sweet Peak was 2:15 hours.  

After a snack break, we headed back to the 4,300 foot and then we ran the ridge up the Florence Peak false summit.   The ridge had some blowdown, but we found the boot trail up the ridge with ease.  From the false summit, we descended down to the  small saddle between the false and true summits.  There is a significant drop off on the NW side of the saddle, so we made sure to avoid that section and then we scrambled up the dry rock to the true summit of the true summit.  Time from the trailhead to Florence Peak was 4 1/2 hours.

Unfortunately, we were in the low clouds the entire trip so we had no views.  However, no rain and the cool weather made the trip pleasant overall.  We descended on the standard Florence Peak trail back to the cars in 2 hours.  We were glad we did the clockwise loop hitting Sweet Peak first.  Descending a wet boot track from Florence to Sweet and back to the Boundary trail probably wouldn't have been very fun.  No snow on the trail or the summit block.   Just a little snow left in the protected areas off trail.  The Florence Peak and Boundary trails had a little blowdown, but not too bad.  Mud in places on the trail and wet roots were the primary hazards.  Back at the cars at 3:30.  7.5 hours total.  9.2 miles, 3,800 ft. gain