Day Hike - Fourth of July Creek

Escaped the rainy cold weather on the west side and found an all-day sunhole over Icicle Ridge. Trail is in pretty good shape and is all uphill but only really steep in the middle section. The lower and upper sections were not that steep in my opinion. It's a lot of elevation gain but the views are spectacular.  From the ridgetop we went west a short distance to the old lookout site where it was exposed and very windy and cold. There was some rime on the tiny trees and ice in a shady spot of one big rock at the lookout site. Best views were south towards Cashmere Mtn and the Stuart range. We could also see up the Icicle valley and some ways to the north, although the distant peaks in that direction were cut off at the top by clouds.

On the way down we ran into a group of individuals pushing mountain bikes up the trail. Not sure what they were thinking, they probably had to push them all the way up to the ridge as the trail is too steep to ride a bike up and the ride down could easily result in a tumble. 

Originally I was worried about it being too hot for this hike but we lucked out with the weather as the cool temps and breezes were reminiscent of fall and kept us from getting too warm on the way up.