Mount Kent 2013-07-16

With the snow chutes passable on the McClellan Butte trail, I decided to give Mt Kent a try.  Once we hit the ridge where the turns and heads up the east side of McClellan, we took the faint boot path down the ridge.  I quickly disappears and we just beat our way to the top of the talus field.  From there we went down to the road.  We missed the turn towards the lakes and decided to follow the road to see what we could see.

After heading back down the road, we saw a faint path up the slope and made it to the smaller Alice Lakes.  We had a difficult climb up the talus before reaching the ridge top.  We should have went up more on the south side of the talus in trees.  We came down that way.  Never did see the bigger lake.

There were a couple of spots along the ridge we had to traverse a needle covered slope, unfortunately, they were packed so hard it was like trying to cross a patch of ice.  Views at the top were good to the north.

Even though the mileage and elevation gain were not huge, it was one of our hardest hikes.

Along the McClellan Butte trail looking down on the Kent's Court area we previously hiked in the winter.

Mt Rainier from the "see what we can see" road

The talus from the McClellan Butte trail is on the right side 

Taking a break in the shade on top of Mt Kent

Looking south from Mt Kent

Looking north from Mt Kent towards Putrid Pete's Peak, Mt Defiance, & Bandera Mt