Edited commentary from hike leader Andrew Drouin:
The hike began as a cool weather event, but by the time we reached the shelter of the staging area and entered the forest, folks were stripping off layers and stuffing them in their backpacks. Our route into Beauty Lake was a mellow, uneventful warmup, despite an unbelievably full pond forcing us to make a short detour; high water in alpine ponds appears to be the norm this spring.
The ascent of Mt.McLellan proper brought more excellent weather and vistas. All went well until we reached approximately 80% of the overall elevation we sought - where the trail began to disappear... A shwack of bushwhacking followed, and I must say, this is a tough group of hikers, as I heard nary a complaint about the wild and woolly terrain I was leading folks through.
For perhaps 40 minutes we smashed and crashed our way through the forest, occasionally coming upon old POC trail flagging, but nothing was to be seen of the former trail. As it turns out, heavy wet snow and high winds has brought down countless hundreds of trees since our mid-winter reconnoiter. We took lunch at a location which offered suitable vistas and pulled the plug on any further summit attempts.
Since a huge amount of clean-up is needed to make it viable again he "McLellan via Beauty Lake" trail is likely one for the history books - at least those areas beyond Joan's Pond and the adjacent look-off at the 80% elevation point.
click on photo to enlarge . . .
