Libby Lake, Hoodoo Peak - Oct. 8-9, 2022
After just having got back to Seattle from another trip to the Chelan-Sawtooths the night before, I grudgingly woke up at 5 AM for a weekend backpacking trip. The plan was to camp at Libby Lake and then catch sunrise the next morning from Hoodoo Peak. It was definitely a late start for this trip meaning that I didn’t get to the trailhead until 10. There were three cars at the primitive trailhead when I got there and two more that arrived as I was getting ready.
The trail to Libby Lake gets started right away. When I checked my GPS after 45 minutes, I had already gained 1,000 vertical feet. The second mile of the trail was probably the worst. There was very little shade (usually not a big deal in the cooler temps of fall, but this fall has been a scorcher) and several blowdowns which began innocuously enough and then became an obnoxious rubble pile further in. After the blowdowns, the trail was quite pleasant under the shade of a surprisingly wet forest. I crossed Libby Creek and its tributaries several times as the terrain gradually transitioned to the alpine.
The larches were at their peak color at Libby Lake and the lake was delightfully blue and austere. This may very well be the slowest I’ve ever backpacked - it took me four hours (including breaks) to hike the 5 miles to camp. I took some photos around the lake shore while the only other group camping up there that night spent some time fishing.
I found a beautiful spot nestled among the larches to pitch my tent. It was still only 3 PM and I wondered what to do next. I had planned to climb Hoodoo the next morning but the smoke was minimal. Moving the climb up to sunset was an option. Instead, I decided to hike up the ridge separating Libby Lake from Hoodoo’s basin. The standard route from Libby Lake follows the trail back down to the cabin remains, where a light bootpath leads into basin below Hoodoo. This involves descending 400 ft and then regaining it on the climb, as well as again when heading back to camp. I thought that if the ridgeline scramble wasn’t bad, it would cut out some time or at the least save my lungs some trouble.
Getting up to the ridge was straightforward. It just felt like easy class 2 scrambling over very large talus. From there, it seemed like a traverse above Hoodoo basin and towards the col above it would be easy as well. And if that didn’t go, dropping down into the basin then rejoining the standard route would have definitely worked.
I had an early dinner and then began turning in for the night. My 5 AM alarm call got snoozed, which became 5:15, then 5:30, then finally 5:45. Even though I could see stars, the smell of smoke was in the air. I got moving by 6 and had already accepted that I would probably miss sunrise. Once I got to the col, I was dismayed to see how smoky it really was. Courtney, Oval, and Star Peaks were barely visible in the thick haze. Probably the worst smoke I’ve hiked in. The views toward Raven Ridge were a little better – definitely hazy but in that interesting way where the smoke makes the mountain layers look dreamy.
I spent a couple of hours on the summit waiting to see if the smoke might clear up a little. Unfortunately, it didn’t. Decided to descend the standard way, which wasn’t faster than my “shortcut” but at least took me through a gorgeously dense stand of larches below Hoodoo. I didn’t bring a helmet and didn’t feel comfortable attempting Raven Ridge without it. An excuse to return! From the ridge between Libby Lake and Hoodoo, the gully up to Raven Ridge looked disgustingly loose. I rambled around the lake to the gully the first night and once I was standing in front of it, it actually looked fine.
After quickly breaking down camp, I was on the trail at noon and passed about 8 people on their way up. The blowdown section was as bad going down as it was going up. Maybe even worse going down since it was hotter the next day. The smoke was awful through Wenatchee on the drive back to Seattle and I felt like a weight was sitting on my chest for most of the drive. I thought it was anxiety before I put two and two together. I now have a couple of N95 masks in the car for driving through thick smoke. In my experience, most of the areas I hiked in this fall had a low level of smoke that was fine to hike in (for me). It was only when driving through town that it got bad.
