The WTA description is confusing as it conflates the two Martin Peaks in WA.  The driving directions and map are for the one in the Sawtooths but the description matches the Martin Pk in Glacier Park.  The Martin Pk in the Sawtooths is an easy Class 2 climb with no equipment required and no exposure.

The Crater Creek TH (aka Eagle Lakes Trailhead) has an adjoining Campground. There is good camping at Cooney Lake, which is has multiple horse campsites.

If you are going to climb Martin, it is an easy hike over to Switchback Mt.  I found the best route was to head NW from Cooney Lk to the saddle between the two peaks, walk the ridge to Martin and then walk it back to the summit of Switchback.  From there a nice round trip is to head SE and intersect the Cooney Lake trail (#434) at the head of the Angel Staircase (a pass).  This takes you back to Cooney Lk.

Started from Crater Lake TH.

2 day, 1 night CW loop connecting Cooney Lake to Switchback Mtn to Martin Peak to Boiling Lake to Mt Bigelow to Upper Eagle Lake. Hiked out on day 2.

The climb from Cooney Lake to Switchback Mtn was mostly a walk-up. Traversing from Switchback to Martin Peak was similar with a few scramble spots near the peak. Descending towards the saddle between Martin and Cheops was slower with more scrambling. We aimed to get to the saddle and then descend into the valley. This led to a steep tree section with bad tractions. In hindsight, we should have made a more direct descent into the valley west of Martin instead of following the ridge to the saddle. A more direct descent would have saved us quite a bit of time here. There is still a small creek flowing out of boiling lake to filter from.

We approached Mt Bigelow from the southwest. I recommend staying low in the grassy areas or even on Hoodoo Spur until you are ready to make the ascent up. We traversed some rockier areas between 7000' and 7300' which was slower than if we would have just stayed low a bit longer on the trail/flat areas. Ascent up Bigelow's west slope has loose rock and scree. Not difficult, just annoying and time-consuming.

We got the peak around sunset. Descending down the southeast slope was more difficult than expected. There was bad traction and with overnight packs, the downclimb was a bit challenging. The first 100ft or so is the crux of the descent. It was dark by the time we finished this initial section. The remainder of the descent in the dark took about 90min with frequent route checking to find the easiest path down to the lake. Using other peoples' GPX tracks here was crucial for avoiding the cliffs in the darkness. Otherwise, the descent was uneventful.

The hike out was a cruise on the trail the next morning.

The larches were all almost at peak or at peak. It depended on the elevation and aspect of the larch patches.

Road/TH:

Road up to the TH is pretty good at first but gets rougher higher up, not great by east side standards, pretty good by west side standards. Camped at the TH the night before. Lots of camping options and we didn't see anyone out due to it being sunday night/monday morning.

Martin Creek -> Switchback Mountain

Martin Creek trail is a pretty casual mellow grade all the way to cooney lake, about 8 miles & 3K vert. Took about 2 1/2 hours. The mosquitoes at cooney lake were AWFUL, couldn't even stop and enjoy the beauty without being swarmed so we began to move up switchback mountain. There's a trail up most of the way up switchback and its pretty easy to navigate so nothing much to say. Very pretty views and a friendly marmot on the summit. We signed the summit register and moved began on the ridge.

Switchback Mountain -> Mount Bigelow

Switchback to Martin is pretty simple and some boulder hopping but easy. Took us about 45 min to get to Martin. Once again gorgeous views and great views along the rest of our route. Martin to Bigelow is less straightforward, you drop down to the left and kinda bushwack before regaining a trail. Follow the trail for a little bit before heading back up a boulder field up to Bigelow. Not too hard to navigate especially with a gpx track, you'll see peaks that look like the summit but the actual summit is to the left. Great views over to Hoodoo Peak & Ravens Ridge, it did look pretty far away though... 

Mount Bigelow -> Hoodoo Peak -> Ravens Ridge

The traverse from bigelow to hoodoo through the forest was easily the worst part of the day. I went high and traversed the rocks (bad idea) I got into some sketchy downclimbs and slabs that were wet as it began to rain. Very buggy and just all around a not fun time. After traversing for a while you hit a gully and then begin to climb up that. It was around this time when we began to hear the thunder so we scurried to find a rock shelter. It was around 7,550 feet. We took shelter and waited for almost an hour before beginning to move because we thought the storm had passed (it hadn't). We climbed a couple hundred feet up before rushing back down as it began to hail and the lighting was very close. We ended up both falling asleep for about 2 hours as the storm officially passed and the skies cleared. 

The rock was wet & slick as we moved up and hit the col. From here you can see the way all the way to hoodoo (stay lower to the right). We made it up to summit of hoodoo around 7:20 pm and still had a long ridge over to ravens ridge. First section is pretty non technical but a lot of boulder hopping, nice to have free hands for some sections though. There is one section along the ridge that was the sketchiest, it was practically directly west of libby lake. Andrew stayed high, I dropped down and ended up with a sketchy downclimb a gully that wasn't fun at sunset. Then it was longer than expected but pretty flat to the true summit, its all the way at the end. 

Ravens Ridge -> TH

Pretty direct descent off of Ravens Ridge, boulders turning into some bushwacking but it was hard to tell as it was pitch black. Then a crusier couple miles back out but not super fun at 12 am and already being out for 19 hours.

Summary:
It ended up being one of my favorite days in the mountains with a couple parts sketchier than I would have liked (thunderstorm, climbing & descending ravens ridge in the dark, loose gully climbing as the sun set with 20+ mph gusts) but I will also love this day. I'd highly recommend having a gpx track it was very helpful, I'll link mine below. The traverse from Hoodoo to Ravens Ridge was definetly the sketchiest part so maybe descending to the lake is better if your less comfortable on rock. Also learn from me and pack that pair of rain pants and don't get caught in a hailstorm in only shorts.

7.6.2023 – Switchback Mountain, Cheops, Martin Peak, Mount Bigelow, Hoodoo Peak, Raven Ridge

Big Methow day... Beautiful, hot(!), hazy. I knocked out a few miles on Wednesday night from Crater Creek TH and found a spot to test a bivy I recently bought, then on Thursday I linked up these 6 peaks in a clockwise loop. Best sections were the scramble up to Cheops and the surrounding Sawtooth ridge; and the climb up the long slabby west gully to Hoodoo’s ridge.

Few notes: From Cheops summit, I tried to get fancy and shortcut down to Boiling Lake via a NE gully. It sucked. I ended up making some very exposed moves onto horrible scree and rolling boulders. Taking the established ridge would’ve been better.

Instead of traversing from Bigelow to Hoodoo northbound via the ridge, I did an out and back of Bigelow and then returned to Hoodoo Pass, linking up briefly with E Fork Buttermilk Trail and then veering off on a northbound bushwhack until I found an awesome class 3/4 gully going west up to the ridge to Hoodoo. This took a while to route find but was lots of fun. Exceptionally buggy in the forest though…

There is a 5th class move or rappel going south on the ridge from Hoodoo towards Libby Peak. There was a bit of tat that I awkwardly rappelled from because it was raining hard. Then it started hailing which made my route up the friction slabs on the ridge very sketchy. I think you can stay climbers left in this area and avoid the knife edge section of the ridge if conditions necessitate.

Lots of gear death today. My boots died, my backpack finally died, my water filter cracked, all on the same day. Time to cash my REI points in!

26 miles, 9,000’ gain

Quick notes on the Golden Lakes Loop - 3 Days/2 Nights with summits of Switchback, Martin and Bigelow and visits to Cooney Lake, Boiling Lake and Upper Eagle Lake.

ROAD: to Crater Creek TH: Doable in my little Nissan Versa Note! There were a couple of bumpy/rocky spots but I just took it slow. The outhouse at the TH had no TP and was kinda stinky.

Since this was a shared use trail frequented by mountain bikes and motorcycles, the trails were all in good shape for the whole loop and generally gained elevation at a moderate grade with some steeper/rockier sections here and there. Everyone we were passed by was courteous and would let us know how many in their party were still coming along.

WATER: The trails were mostly dry - I think we had maybe one water crossing between the trailhead and Cooney Lake, and one water trickle between Boiling Lake and Hoodoo Pass. In general, I'd plan to fill up at the lakes.

LARCHES: were just past prime, still very pretty in faded gold, but many trees were half bare.

We began at the Crater Creek TH, hiked in past Cooney Lake, and summited Switchback on day 1. Switchback was a straightforward climb up from the pass from the Angel's Staircase above Cooney. From there, we followed the ridge north towards Martin hoping to find a bivy site, but didn't find anything great. We ended up dropping a little bit off the ridge before it steepened on the climb up towards Martin, and we set up camp at around 7850' in the flattest patch of rocks we could find.

The next morning, we packed up and headed up Martin Peak which was a quick climb from camp. From the summit, we headed a short way on the ridge towards Cheops but the terrain here was more rugged and scrambly and very slow-going with full packs, so we decided to bail off the ridge in interest of time and dropped northwest. This was a bit of a slow, loose and chossy descent that eventually turned into steep woods (carpets of larch needles can be slippery!), but we eventually made it down to the flatter meadow and picked up the (Wiebe Pass?) trail that led us to Boiling Lake where tons of tiny frogs frolicked.

We set up camp on the east side of Boiling Lake and headed out on the Hoodoo Pass trail with much lighter packs. We followed the trail all the way up to the pass. From the pass, we cut west up towards Bigelow, which was pretty smooth sailing to the summit except for a section of large boulders that we had to hop through, some of which were annoyingly wobbly. We enjoyed the summit for a while with views over Upper Eagle Lake.

We opted for a more direct descent route off of Bigelow, angling more southwest than our ascent. This route took us through more scree/looser terrain that actually went pretty easily on the descent (but probably would have been more annoying to climb).

On our final day, we climbed up to Horsehead Pass and then took a side trip to Upper Eagle Lake before heading back out the Eagle Lakes trail to complete our loop.

Backcountry toilets were available at all three lakes, with the one at Boiling Lake providing the most privacy. It seemed like Upper Eagle was the most busy backpacking destination out of the three lakes we visited.

This area truly is a wonderful larchland and is definitely popular for a reason in the fall!

Follow along on Instagram for more photos/videos: @thenomadicartist