Boy Howdy! This one sure made up for monday's so-so outing. Took the PCT north from Chinook Pass to Sheep Lake. Easy going with little gain or loss on a wide, smooth trail. The 4 inches of snow did little to disguise this boulevard. Beyond Sheep, the trail climbs to Sourdough Gap and the views expand with each step. All the big ones and all the rest. What could'nt ya see? Mt. Rainier? But in about 5 minutes I'd have the greatest view of Rainier this side of the Pecos. Beyond the Gap on the PCT to a sidetrail over another gap with views down to the Crystal Lakes and the awesome Rainier. Took some pictures and went back over the unnamed gap to continue toward Bear Gap, 3 miles north on the PCT. I just wanted to see into the ski area, and realized I could do this way before Bear Gap. So I headed up to a saddle and there it was, Crystal Mountain! After looking for awhile it hit me, I'd been right next to The King. The Green Trails maps join together right there, I guess I missed it. So I turned around and headed for The King. Not wanting to go all the way around I chose another saddle which got me to above Crystal Lakes and without further adieu I was on top of the world. The view of Rainier and the White River from here is unparalleled. Now let's not forget everything else you can see, its the highest peak for miles around. Lounged in the sun for an hour, taking pictures and watching the trucks go up and down the ski area roads. On the way back ran into a couple of guys from Yakima enjoying one of the last best days. To car from top in 1:45. Total trip 12+ miles and 3000'.

I wanted an easy, close-to-home fall color backpack after my washout last weekend and decided on Upper Crystal Lake. I hiked in from Chinook Pass as the trailhead is closer to home &, though a little longer, the elevation gain is half that of the Crystal Creek trail. The fall color was beautiful, both along the trail and in the lake basin. There were lots of day hikers on Sunday, but only a few on Monday. The weather was sunny & warm, but breezy throughout.

Sounds of elk bugles, a sure sign of autumn, highlighted this 3-day backpack in the William O. Douglas Wilderness. An elk bugle is an eerie sound when you are tucked in your tent at night or hiking down a wilderness trail by day. We heard elk both nights while camped at Long John Lake and sporadically during our 10.7-mile loop hike on the second day. We hiked in from U.S. Highway 12 on the Cramer Lake Trail, then via the Shellrock Lake Trail to Long John Lake. The Green Trails map and Wenatchee NF trails list show a "system trail" from the Shellrock Lake Trail to Long John Lake. We overshot our destination, however, because the signs are missing for the Dumbbell Lake Connector Trail and the Long John Lake Trail. We backtracked and found Long John Lake, where there is a campsite on the west shore. Our all-day loop hike took us to the former lookout site on the 6,340-foot summit of Tumac Mountain, where we could see Mount Adams looming above the Goat Rocks to the south, the bare slopes of the White Pass Ski Area, Mount Rainier to the west, and Twin Sisters Lakes lying at the foot of Miners Ridge to the north. We descended to Twin Sisters Lakes for lunch and continued around the loop. It was a true wilderness experience: we did not encounter a single person on the entire hike. During the 3 days, we encountered less than 10 people, and they were mostly anglers. In all, we hiked almost 22 miles and gained about 2,500 feet, passing numerous nameless lakes and ponds on the Tumac Plateau. The trails are in bad shape, probably a combination of the heavy snowpack and late melt out keeping the tread wet later than normal, limited maintenance and heavy stock use. Many mudholes. In some places, it was drier to walk off the turnpike than on it because of the huge puddles. We did many "work arounds" through the brush to avoid walking in the worst mud pits. The bridge that used to span North Fork Clear Creek on the Cramer Lake Trail washed out in some past flood, so you need to be prepared to wade or walk a log. Some ruts came nearly to my waist. The sorriest trails were the Cowlitz Trail going over Tumac Mountain and the Twin Sisters Trail between the lakes and the PCT. The trail in the best shape -- no surprise -- was the PCT. WTA could find enough work here for an entire summer of Volunteer Vacations. The huckleberry crop was pretty sparse, but there were lots of boletas mushrooms. The huckleberry leaves are just beginning to turn red.

Started out around noon at Dog Lake Campground and went up the 1106 (Cramer Lake Trail). The weather was awesome, very sunny but not too hot. We had lots of smoke rolling up in that area and we wondered if there was a forest fire nearby; when we reached the end of the hike we asked a forest ranger and he said it was from Southern Oregon forest fires (the smoke was with us the whole trip). Anyways, we hiked from dog lake to Long John Lake on the first day. The bridge is still out on the trail but there's a large log about 100 yards up the creek that you can cross on. That section was 5.23 miles on my GPS, the map showed it was about 6.7 but by my calculations it was 5.23. We camped near Long John Lake the first night and I caught two small cutthroat trout out of the lake. Temperatures got down to around 40 degrees so it wasn't too cold. Got up early that morning and headed north on 1142 (Shellrock Lake Trail) then briefly headed west on what my "green trails map" said was trail 44. Then less than a quarter mile after getting on trail 44 we went north on the PCT (Trail 2000). Lots of wild blue huckleberries along the trail all the way along the PCT where we went, especially on the climb out of fish lake. We went north the second night on the PCT all the way till the cut off to American Lake. It was a 15.9 Mile stretch according to my GPS but my legs thought it was 25 miles! unless you're in really good shape i wouldn't recommend going all 16 miles in one day, especially with the 1500 - 2000 ft. elevation gain coming out of Fish Lake. Water was not a problem on the trip but i would recommend filling up at the stream thats about halfway up the climb out of fish lake. We didn't come accross water again on the trail till we camped near American Lake. On the third day we hiked out on the PCT up to Dewey Lake then to the bridge at Chinook pass staying on the PCT the whole way. That section of the trail was pretty easy till the climb out of Dewey lake. The third day total was roughly 7.5 miles. Mosquitos were not bad on the hike; they were around but not nearly as thick as they are in July. the total trip was just over 28 miles on my GPS and there were some spectacular views!

I've been wanting to hike Chinook Pass to White Pass in a day for a long time. After some coaxing, I convinced my son Sean to join me because it would be a "challenge". Tragically, we picked one of the nicest days ever to make the hike, and the excellent weather was compounded by abundant huckleberries at higher elevations. This slowed us down a bit, and the whole hike ( 30 miles or so) took 14.5 hours. We left the parking lot kind of late, 8 AM - so we finished the last 5 miles in the dark, with headlamps. We started at Chinook Pass because it's all downhill from there, or more so anyway than from White Pass. We dropped down to Dewey Lakes, past a large encampment of children, parents and aggressive unleashed dogs, and into the hike proper. I won't bore you with 14.5 hours of detail, but I will say that the first half of the hike was fantastic. Unbelievable views, tame marmots, wildflowers, a totally cloudless Mt.Rainier and, like I said, lots of huckleberries. The second half of the hike, after Bumping River, was the typical Cascade forest slog, punctuated by occasional pretty lakes and wide meadows. Fifteen or so miles of this gets old quickly, especially when you've already hiked 14 + miles. It was a great hike, great weather, and fantastic scenery for the first (northern) half. Somewhere along the way the PCT intersects the Laughingwater Creek trail, and if you set things up with two cars, that would probably make a great exit point. Cut out the flat-land forest slog, and this hike would have a hard time being equaled.