Jim Means, my brother Will and I decided to take advantage of one of the last decent weekends of the fall season. We watched the weather closely and decided a Fri/Sat/Sun to Cottonwood Lakes over the 1-3 Nov '13 weekend was do-able.
The hiker parking was wide open; when we arrived ours was the only vehicles. The temp was about 50 deg and it was calm.
Jim led us up an unmarked shortcut to the south fork where we intersected the south fork lakes which were nearly frozen over. The ice was quite thick on the outlet end.
- Iced over South Fork Lake
We then cut over past lake 2 to lake 3 where we camped. Lake 3 was about 1/2 frozen and there were a bunch of migrating birds taking a rest there. By the ice buildup on the downslope edge of the lake you could tell it had been quite cold earlier in the week.
- Outlet end of Cottonwood Lake 3
I hiked up to lake 4 and 5 near sunset. Lake 4 is nearly completely frozen over. Lake 5 is almost completely open.
- Iced Over Cottonwood Lake 4 at Sunset
- Iced Outlet of Cottonwood Lake 4
At daybreak on Saturday morning we heard a coyote howl and then several pups yipped for a while. I never saw them, but I captured some paw prints in the snow near lake 4.
- Coyote (?) tracks in the snow
On Saturday my brother Will and I went up old Army Pass to Mt Langley. Jim had twisted his knee crossing the stream on our shortcut to the south fork lakes, so he wasn't up for the trip up Langley. There was snow on most of the shaded trail going up from lake 4. The small section near the top of the pass was snowed over and because we didn't have axes or other protection we decided it would be wiser to climb up than try to traverse. Based on the footprint it appears others had made the same decision.
- Old Army Pass Snow Traverse near the summit
The trail up Mt Langley was clear and the summit was a little breezy but very nice especially considering it was November, about 40 degrees.
The wind kicked up significantly during the evening with gust I think were around 30 mph. We packed up at daybreak and hiked out on the main trail which was mostly clear.
- Will crossing the iced over stream
- My Langley looking across iced over Lake 1
