Backpacking and hiking trip reviews, gear reviews, and tips and tricks for backpacking with the family or youth groups.
Drove up Mountain Loop Hwy south out of Darrington to check out road conditions and possible hikes.
Hikes in that area that I am interested in doing are 8 mile creek, Pugh Mountain, Round Lake/Lost Creek Ridge, and Peek a Boo Lake.
It looks like the road to the North Fork of the Sauk River is passable.
The Mt. Loop Hwy was closed about 1 mile south of Bedal. We hiked down the road about another 1.25 miles and only hit patchy snow.
Had a good time exploring with the family and the dog.
Thursday morning I was driving into work when a friend sent me a text inviting me to join him Friday on a hike up North Twin Sister and well obviously I said yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.
I had some familiarity with this mountain, I’ve read a little about it and know some guys that have been up there, but honestly I didn’t really know much. During the day Thursday I took a quick glance at the Mountaineer’s page on it and at Summit Post. My buddy said we’d leave early and be home mid afternoon, those sites put the vertical elevation gain at 5,400 ft. As I was reading the reviews I thought I read that it would take 5-7 hours…. Something wasn’t adding up but whatever, the forecast was good and I needed to pack, download maps, and get some food.
We got an early start and arrived at the gate around 7:30 am, just as it was starting to get light out. It was cold and frosty but clear with the intent to be a gorgeous blue bird day. This “hike” begins at the the middle fork of the Nooksack river, a boulder strewn river with fast running water.
We slid our bicycles under the gate and began the 6 mile uphill slog. The first 4 or so miles was all on really well maintained logging roads and we alternated between riding our bikes and pushing them. I usually don’t mountain bike with a 20lb backpack so there was perhaps a little more pushing than riding. As we wound our way up we had amazing views of Mt. Baker and the Black Buttes. We could also see North Twin Sister as we climbed higher, an imposing pile of rock with a little snow on it and what appeared to be frozen waterfalls on its north side.
We pedaled and pushed on, riding across a sketchy frost covered bridge planked with 12″ wide boards that had a couple inch gap between them, soon after that branched off the road we were on to an abandoned logging road that is now mostly covered with young alders. This path seemed to go virtually straight up and we continued to push our bikes up it for nearly 2 miles. It unceremoniously ends at a small campsite that this particular morning was covered in frost and very well frozen with needle ice. We left the bikes there and started up on what was our best guess of the trail.
For the next bit we pushed our way through small trees and brush as we went up and up through the forest. The smaller trees and brush eventually gave way to a stand of larger trees and then we were out of that and onto the base of the ridge. The trail at this point had some leftover bits of snow here and there from the storms we had earlier in October and the trail was full of ice needles.
The trail wanders a bit but follows the ridge line among stunted conifers, which are a testament to the brutal conditions this area sees throughout the winter. With the smaller trees and the trail along the ridge line we can now see into the basins on the north side of the mountian and to the south we can see South Sister and the giant valley between the two. At one point as we paused to take a break Jason asked if that was the freeway we could hear down below us, after we hiked a little further the raging stream between the two mountains came into view and we realized it was the source of the noise we heard.
Soon this hike transforms into a 2000′ scramble. The good news is that the rock is a very grippy dunite and easily scaled. The bad news, the route is not always well marked.
In all honesty the scrambling part of this was really, really fun. A little sketchy in spots but the rock is really grippy and footholds and handholds were plentiful and good.
We continued to scramble our way up until we were at around 5,300′ in elevation. By this point we had been going for about three and a half hours, and had gained about 4,000 ft in elevation. We took a break in a nook on the side of the mountain and decided that it was time for us to head down.
We soaked in the view for a while and then began our descent. It was slow going down climbing the scramble but was wasn’t as intimidating as it seemed it would be. We took some time to take in the scenery, watching another pair of climbers advance up the ridge, some eagles soaring along looking for food, and a gyrfalcon.
We soon found out the reward for pedaling and pushing those bikes uphill earlier in the morning as we ripped down the mountain. That last 2 miles that had seemed so hard to push up was a hoot, every where the path crossed a stream there was a little jump (which is kind of awkward with a pack and an iceaxe on) but it was fun. The bridge that was frozen over in the morning was still frozen but we just blew right over it anyway and probably within 20 minutes of having reached the bikes we were back at the car, already thinking about the next trip up.
If you don’t want to hear about the best hike in Washington State, don’t read this post. .
If the value of a view is measured by the sweat it took to get to it, this hike comes at a steep price and is still a bargain, am I over selling this? Based on my 2 hikes there no, I am not.
Just up the Cascade River from Marblemount this hike starts around 3,600 feet in elevation at the end of a steep gravel road that can look a little intimidating but was apparently doable by the guy in the dark blue Dodge Charger, which by the way I wouldn’t recommend, but kudos to that guy for sticking it out.
This hike is at a minimum from the trail head to the fire lookout 3,300ft of elevation gain in 3 or 4 miles, for those of us that are mathematically challenged that means it goes up pretty much relentlessly up for the first half of the hike. It starts in the forest meandering around through the trees as it climbs up the drainage for the East Fork Sibley Creek. After a while of wandering around in the trees you pop out into an avalanche scrubbed alpine valley and cross over the creek.
This is where the magic begins. Yes you are constantly going uphill, yes there is no shade and it can be swelteringly hot and humid from all the plants, but the view is AMAZING. Time it right and you’ll be wandering through acres and acres of wildflowers. Looking up you’ll see the granite peaks that you’ll soon be climbing up on top of. Looking down you’ll see the debris left from the winter snowstorms and avalanches.
As we neared the top of this wonderfully lush valley and began the transition into the alpine areas that were still covered largely with snow we saw a bear down below us across the valley just doing his thing a few hundred yards uphill of where we had just walked through. While not much more than a dot at this point it was neat to watch him meander through the mountain meadows. The last time we hiked through here we came on a mountain goat literally on the trail.
At about the half way point the trail begins to traverse south towards the peak with the fire lookout. The traverse is gently uphill (with a little down hill section that we didn’t notice until the hike down). At this point however we did begin to encounter snow fields. Which we expected and came prepared for with ice axes and crampons. We did not use the crampons, however if the snow had frozen over hard, like it was on our previous hike here, crampons or micro spikes would have been in useful.
From here we followed the boot pack and the trail when we could find it and worked our way up to the saddle between the peak with the lookout on it and the peak to the north.
Again this is a hike that doesn’t disappoint and as we continued to climb the views continued to amaze. The view down the Cascade River Valley continued to open up, snow capped mountians and deep mountain valleys surrounded us, and then as the lookout peak came into view it we were presented with an imposing granite peak rising up above us.
At the saddle between the peak with the lookout to the south and Hidden Lake Peak to the north you’ll get your first look at Hidden Lake which is about 1000′ below the saddle to the east with a backdrop of verdant valleys and snow capped peaks. Early in the summer the lake is still covered in snow and ice. The trail to the fire lookout takes off from the saddle and virtually strait up the peak, look for the cairns and you’ll be OK.
I am always amazed at these fire lookouts about the men that had to haul the stuff up to these remote peaks to build, maintain, and live in them. We spent some time hanging out and enjoying the view from the top and then decided to go back up the ridge to Hidden Lake Peak. Just below the peak and above the saddle there is a flat spot on the ridge of giant granite slabs and plenty of places to get some cool pictures overlooking the lake. Zach and I hung out there while our hiking buddies went the rest of the way up to the peak.
The way down was a blast, being that probably for the top 1,000′ or so we were in the snow and were able to glissade down.
Once we were out of the snow though it was a bit of a slog through the alpine meadow as things had began to warm up and it was pretty muggy, as remarkable consolation though the alpine flowers were out and the views were amazing.
Finishing up the hike I stopped at the creek just before the parking lot and tried out the new water filter I had just purchased to get my self some ice cold water for the ride home. It was very refreshing!
Memorial Day Weekend 2018
We originally intended to go to Early Winters Creek Campground in Mazama but were delayed in getting out of town. I had really hoped we would get a spot at Early Winters Creek, it is only about 15 miles or so from Washington Pass and I wanted to give the splitboard I just finished putting together a go but when we finally did get to Mazama all the campgrounds were full so we headed out to Winthrop and up towards Billy Goat Mountain until we found a spot.
One of the routes that I like to take youth groups backpacking on is a loop from Billy Goat Mountain around to the Hidden Lakes via Dollar Watch Mountain and back to Billy Goat. In 2017 there was a wildfire in that area that burned over 128,000 acres. I was (and still am) concerned about the how the fire affected the areas we like to hike through. Part of the reason for my concern is that there is a section of trail from Dollar Watch Mountain to Big Hidden Lake that had previously burnt out about 18 years ago and had become a miserable slog through overgrown underbrush and blowdowns. I am holding out some hope that the areas that burnt in 2017 won’t be as bad as the other area, due to the forests in most of those areas being in better shape than the area that had previously burnt which been affected by beetle kill and the forest there was already largely dead when the fire came through with devastating effect.
Since we were in the area I decided we would head up and hike up to Drake Creek or up to Billy Goat Pass, however it was not to be as the road was closed a couple miles before the trailhead with a sign that indicated closed meant closed to everybody not just vehicles. The closure was just past the Copper Glance trail so we decided instead to go up Copper Glance. I had thought I left the maps in the trailer back at camp so we went from what I could remember, that roughly we’d go up 2000′ and the trail was a couple of miles long. No big deal…
The first mile or so wandered through the woods up an old mine railway grade, eventually coming to an abandoned mine. It is a nice broad trail that while continually going up was not too steep (rail grade), there was a creek crossing that had Charissa a little concerned but none the less a pretty easy jaunt up to the mine. After the mine the trail steepens as you climb through the forest, I was beginning to wonder if we were going to break out of the trees and get a view when suddenly we came up around a bend and were rewarded with this amazing view (thank you to the other hikers that said keep going it is worth it, not that we would have stopped but it is nice to have some encouragement).
We continued to hike through the meadows enjoying the alpine views when shortly we began to come into some snow. As we entered back into the trees the snow became heavier and heavier making trail finding difficult. Eventually we came to a creek that looked like it would require a pretty significant effort to cross and we were pretty much on solid snow by then. As we had started out for just a leisurely stroll through the woods we weren’t really equipped to be roaming around in the snow and decided that it would be a good time to turn back. It of course was a hard decision as there is a lake up there that I really would have liked to reach even though chances are it was probably still snowed in or frozen over, but Zach was wearing converse tennis shoes that were soaked through and like I said we didn’t have the map with us…
A couple of things about this hike:
While I don’t remember now how long we were up there I kept wondering why we hadn’t reached the lake, I could remember that it was about a 2000′ vertical gain and had been consistently hiking at a 1000′ plus gain per hour on other recent hikes (I know because we were measuring for that in preparation for a Mt. Baker climb) and we had been hiking for more than a couple hours. Turns out that on the map the trail doesn’t start from the road (like it does in reality). The map shows a road that goes in, probably about to the mine, then the trail starts. It shows the trail starting at 5000′ going up to 6200 feet in 1.8 miles and then dropping to 6100 feet in another .5 miles to the lake. The elevation of the road at the junction of road 5130 and 505 (which is really the trailhead) is 3840′. We made it up to 6,080 feet. Washington Trails Association puts the hike up to the mines at about 1.5 miles.
After returning to the car, and somewhat ironically, I found that I had not left the maps at camp but that they were in fact in the car….. Oh well maybe we’ll get to go back although as I wrote this the fire map shows that the Mcleod fire has reached the trail head and part of the trail.
While we didn’t plan on doing this particular trail and in fact had no intention of being in the area, it was a really enjoyable hike that I’m excited to go back and do when we can get to the lake. Sometimes you just get lucky 🙂
Trail Beta: Copper Glance Trail is Trail 519, off of Rd 505 (which is closed) take Road 5130 to get there, there are signs on the road. Use green trails maps 19 Billy Goat Mountain and 51 Mazama