Pacific Crest Trail Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass — Aug. 10, 2009

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

15

Wildflowers blooming
Ripe berries

Yesterday’s trail run set me forth on the Pacific Crest Trail headed south from Snoqualmie pass. This segment is a really cool lesson just waiting to happen. It gets a bad rap because it’s a part of the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie forest that has been turned into a commodity. There are clear cuts, there are logging roads, the water bars could use the back side of a Pulaski and a little sweat equity and signage can be misleading or nonexistent in places. It’s the bad side of the tracks (literally) and none of the cool kids play here. Here’s where it starts to get good if you ask me. No one wants to play here. Yesterday I ran nearly to Mirror Lake, I saw one guy looking for a place to pitch a tent at Olallie Meadows and that, my friends, was it. Nobody at Lodge Lake. Nobody eating the copious amounts of native blackberries, thimbleberries, huckleberries and such. Nobody climbing any of the peaks. Nobody other than that one dude who was gone by the time I ran back. Last Saturday’s run up Commonwealth Basin is just on the other side of I-90. I suspect that the Forest Service may put in a parking garage at this trail head to service the weekend crowds that descend on the location in the summer. Most people who park here are headed up to the Kendall Catwalk, some will camp out at Gravel or Rail lakes and come back down the following day, and a few are just working their way north or south on that segment of the PCT. But it’s good to know that if you’d like to get out into the open, where you can still have a little elbow room all you have to do is cross the street. The fist mile and a half you’ll be working your way up into the forest by crossing the ski slopes. This hill is tiny considering you could be climbing up the other side. After a bit of running through dense, old forests full of berries you’ll come out to several boulder fields which overlook the Interstate. Yes you can hear the traffic below, just keep moving and all will be well. Soon thereafter you’ll pass a couple of lumbering sites and start to head south and up between Silver Peak (west side) and Mt Catherine (east side). When you encounter a wet, peat bog with wildflowers blooming all over the place you will have reached Olallie Meadows. You won’t be able to hear the traffic any longer. And you’ll probably be surprised at your good fortune because this is pretty darn beautiful and you’re most likely the only person looking at it. I got to the Meadows yesterday evening early and so I pushed on toward Mirror Lake which sits up high just behind Abiel Peak. Next time I’ll probably spend the time to finish the run the whole way to Mirror Lake, last night I turned around and looked back down on Olallie Meadows and realized that the storm which had been content to drop rain on Seattle earlier was now moving up my hill and threatening lots of wetness in the dark if I didn’t high tail it back down. High tail it I did only stopping to snap a couple more photos. Wet I became, the clouds weren’t dropping a lot of moisture. Rather they were upon me and the run became a kind of chilly, high mountain swimming event. Under the trees there was almost no light or what was there was diffuse enough to be completely useless, I got out my headlamp to help me see in these spots. By the time I came to the back end of the ski resort the sun was going down and the clouds were so thick they required fog lighting to run through. At some point I lost my way and ran off the trail, but getting down at this point was not a problem. Just follow the sounds of the ski resort and I was there. Wool clothing is very helpful on trips like these, I was never cold and I didn’t worry about my safety in the wet and dark. I could have stayed out over night with what I had on and been comfortable and warm. In my experience you don’t get the same kind of insulation from synthetic clothes and cotton is completely useless in scenarios like this. As the cool, wet weather starts to become normal please keep this in mind as you head out into the open.

Bullion Basin, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass, Silver Creek — Aug. 8, 2009

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

4 photos

Riri

75

Wildflowers blooming

With thick grey clouds brooding over Crystal Mountain, it seemed an inauspicious time to gain any vistas from Norse Peak, my original plan, so on to Plan B: Bullion Basin. This was a perfect hike for an overcast day. Daphne, my faithful 4-footed companion and the only one I could find to accompany me today, loved this hike because it wasn't terribly steep or difficult or long, and there was plenty of water to play in. Although there were lots of cars in the Crystal Mountain parking lot when I arrived at 10:15 am, I only encountered three hikers and two dogs on the entire 6.5-mile loop, making it a great escape from weekend hordes. Despite the heavy clouds obscuring all the nearby peaks, there remained plenty to see on this loop, hiking through deep rich woods with sweeping valley views, and many bright wildflowers still clinging to life on either side of the mostly dusty trail. The red paintbrush, columbine, aster, arnica, and pearly everlasting are particularly plentiful right now. The hike starts behind three large boulders to the left of the Chapel. It's a faint boot trail that ascends a meadow, veers left, and then turns into a rough service road. When you come to the crossroad with a sign for Parking Lot C, cross the service road and find the signpost with a teeny, tiny laminated blue sign announcing the start of Bullion Basin Trail No. 1156. The trail climbs very gradually, ascending just 1000 feet in about an hour of walking. The namesake basin is a marshy meadow reached at 2 miles. Shortly thereafter, the trail climbs a bit more steeply for 0.5 mile to the junction with the PCT. Turn right (south) onto the PCT to reach Blue Bell Pass (6475 ft), then Crown Point and Pickhandle Gap. (At Pickhandle Gap, there's a trail to the left signed Fog City No. 967A. This is a 1-mile, supposedly scenic detour that connects with Trail No. 967, which leads to Bear Gap. I didn't take the scenic bypass today, as the trail seemed to be living up to its name, Fog City.) Instead, I continued along the PCT to Bear Gap. Here it got a little confusing to me. The hiking guides will say there's a 4-way trail junction but there's actually a 5-way junction. As you approach Bear Gap, straight ahead is PCT-Southbound and to your left is Trail No. 967 (from that previous scenic detour). Immediately to your right is unsigned Trail No. 1192, Silver Creek, which takes you directly back to the resort; the second-to next trail to your right is vaguely signed both No. 1163 and Lower Hen Skin Lake Trail, and takes you down to Hen Skin Lake. (Note: there is a knocked-down trail sign here, but it's hard to tell where the arrows are pointing because everything is faded.) I made the mistake of taking the immediate right fork and managed to skip Hen Skin Lake altogether, although my plan had been to take No. 1163 down to the lake (0.7 miles away), and then connect with No. 1192. In any case, it all comes together at the end, where you'll cross under a ski lift and go over a wooden bridge, eventually coming out onto a dirt service road. Although the scenery left something to be desired, Daphne loved this service road because she could run beside me splashing in the little creek that parallels the road. You'll eventually reach a crossroad where you see that Parking Lot C sign again. Turn left back onto the rough old service road you started out on and voila, you're back in the parking lot. And as a glorious aside, let me note that this was my first completely DEET-free, bug-free hike of the summer--yippee!! DISTANCE: 6.4 miles TOTAL TIME: 3 hours ELEVATION GAIN: 1900 ft, starting from the parking lot (4400-6300 ft) MAP: Green Trails No. 271, Bumping Lake PERMITS: Northwest Forest Pass DIRECTIONS: From Enumclaw, drive east on SR 410 for 34 miles. Turn left onto Crystal Mountain Road (FR 7190) and drive 5 miles to the end of the road at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. Park on the left (east)side of the lot closest to the resort. (Alternatively, you could park on one of those service roads you pass and save yourself 400 ft of climbing. For that you'd drive 4.1 miles down FR 7190 and find unsigned gravel road No. 7190410 on your left, which takes you directly to the Bullion Basin trailhead several miles down. There are 5 parking spaces on the road shoulder at the trailhead and you'll know you're there when you see the sign that says "Parking Lot C.")

Pacific Crest Trail Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass — Jul. 2, 2009

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

1 photo

whitebark

300

I hiked a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail near Meadow Pass while searching (unsuccessfully) for the old Meadow Mountain trail. Located in the heavily logged and abused landscape around Stampede Pass, this part of the PCT is little used by walkers, other than long-distance through-hikers headed for Canada. The point where the PCT crosses the Meadow Pass logging road is hard to spot. Once you find it, the northbound path is in decent enough shape, although a bit overgrown. There are a few blowdowns here and there. The path heads through blocks of old growth timber between the clearcuts, offering welcome coolness and shade. The PCT's tread is carpeted with a deep layer of duff and cones, showing how little use this trail gets. The clearcuts themselves are regrowing steadily, and are much less raw than they used to be. In places they are even beginning to resemble a forest. After two miles the trail runs into another road. Here I began my futile search for the old Meadow Mountain Trail, which appears to have been totally obliterated by logging and blowdown. It is possible that remnants of the trail exist much higher on the mountain. While stumbling around the brushy logged-over slopes, I visited a small lake tucked in a basin below Meadow Mountain. The pond proved to be rather charming and showed no sign of visitation. If you drive to the point closest to the lake, it is about a 200 yard hike to get there. For a change of pace from the busy hiker freeways near I-90, definitely give the PCT sections south of Snoqualmie Pass a try. The clearcuts are regrowing and the scenery, though not alpine-dramatic, is pleasant in its own way.

Pacific Crest Trail Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass — Jun. 26, 2009

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

john deer

100

This was the only title that remotely applied to this nice loop trip with part of the PCT as one leg of the loop. After descending from Mt Catherine, we seemed to have too much energy left over. By the end of this loop trip there was no energy left over. We began at the start of the Mt Catherine trail; descended the road a couple of hundred feet; then descended the trail down to Twin Lakes. This trail was in adequate shape; muddy here and there; creek on trail here and there; but generally OK. The original plan was to descend to this lake and then go back to the car, but.... We decided to check out the Cold Creek trail which ascends from Twin Lakes up to the Pacific Crest Trail with a decision point at 2 pm, but.... by 2 we had ascended quite a ways on some marginal trail and crossing some questionable blow downs. Also during this ascent, discussions of a loop trip ensued. Unfortunately, we had no map for the area so we did not know exactly how far it was to the PCT nor how much elevation gain - we had general ideas but only to the nearest mile and plus or minus a few hundred vertical feet. For the second time in 2 weeks we had to rely on Bill's innate route finding experience so we kept going up, up, and up. As soon as I was ready to mutiny, the sound of success came down the trail. We had a nice long lunch at the PCT trail junction. Two others were also there and had come in from Windy Pass which turned out to be a very good thing. There were long sections of snow travel from the junction back to Windy Pass and the boot prints were our guides for many short sections. This section of the PCT has mostly north and east facing slopes so there is still a boat load of snow here. Plus, there are many creeks that are full and the snow bridges across them are very suspect right now.

Pacific Crest Trail Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass — Feb. 6, 2009

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

ct kook

Beware of: snow conditions

FOR A $10 DONATION THE TOUR LOOP ON AND ABOUT THE PCT WAS GREAT! IF YOU HAVE NEVER SNOW SHOED... BEFORE THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO CHECK IT OUT ON A GUIDED TOUR WITH A PARK RANGER. WE HAD A GROUP OF ABOUT 20, BUT IT TAKES 2 HOURS AND WELL WORTH EVERYTHING. I'M GOING RIGHT NOW TO BUY SNOWSHOES. REDFEATHER BRAND LOOKS GOOD!!! CONTACT SNOQUAMIE RANGER STATION OR FS WEBSITE TO GET MORE INFO. RESERVATIONS MUST BE MADE!!! WED. THRU FRI. BEFORE THE SAT. AND SUN. TOURS!!!!!!!!