We left the trailhead at 7:10am with skies still a bit dark. We followed the old Cascade Crest Trail, which is now abandoned, for about 2.5 miles until we connected with the Pacific Crest Trail, or the PCT. It wasn't long before the views opened up and we enjoyed clear skies too.
We found the cutoff for the faint route up to Kendall Peak and were at the summit by 9:25am.
We didn't spend too much time up here as we still had more miles and one more peak to summit. Back on the PCT we made it to the "Kendall Katwalk". This section isn't for the faint of heart as it was literally blasted from the side of a steep mountainside.
Once past the Katwalk we passed a few lakes, Gravel, Ridge and Alaska. They were all very pretty and we stopped for a few moments at Gravel and passed by the others. With virtually no breeze, the reflections on the water were wonderful.
We followed along the trail as it flanks the lower section of Alaska Mt until we reached the eastern ridge. With direction from another hiker we headed up this ridge and encountered some really "fun" spots as we maneuvered around some rocks which reminded us of our ridge traverse from Mt Daniel a few weeks ago.
At last we made it to the summit where I rewarded myself with a great snack.
Oh, did I mention the views!!!!!!!
After enjoying the summit for a while we made our way back down the ridge and onto the PCT for our return voyage.
As usual I have a full set of pictures on Flickr with a link here.
I also created a video which unfortunately has a few small editing glitches due to my Windows Movie Maker software..... that video can be found on YouTube, or at the link here, or below.
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