Great loop hike. Started at Dog Lake Campground (NW Forest Pass or America the Beautiful Pass required) and traveled counter clockwise. Incredible number of mushrooms, a little start to fall color, and zero mosquitos.Total distance 12.8 miles, 1,700 feet elevation gain.

FYI there are two bathrooms at the trailhead. Don’t park along either side of the driveway going into campground. Saw lots of tickets and towing notices today! Park on Hwy 12 if campground parking is full. 
 

Surprise! Another beautiful hike.

Trail was not as well maintained as the previous section. Signs were few and far between, even at intersections. If there are signs, you will hardly see the direction for PCT. But that's why we use maps :) Only thought I was lost a handful of times, and never actually was! 

Water source, hard to find on multiple days. Late in the season, I was happy it wasn't more. 

Lots of burned forests. Made for a creepy foggy evening hike. 

As beautiful as this section is, it was more of a get me thru it to get to the next location. The PCT thru hikers made it so fun, I finally was able to almost keep up with them, gosh if you want a positive human experience, hike with or around the PCT.

Downer to the hike, which put a cloud on it all. my last night I stayed at the summit inn. Many things are terrible about this place, from customer service and on... This doesn't have to do with the trail, but it kinda does if you're wanting a shower and laundry and bed. Not worth it.

DO NOT STAY AT THE SUMMIT INN AT SNOQUALMIE! stay anywhere else, camp anywhere, do not stay there. If you do, this would be the place to use your bear mace! At 730 am the male house keeper walked into my room, while I was in bed. long story short, he attempted another time to enter my room before checkout. That is only 25% of why you should NOT STAY THERE!

We hiked this 100 mile section of the PCT northbound over 8 days in early September...and we were pleasantly surprised by the beauty and solitude. We had heard about the many clearcuts, powerlines, burn areas and forest roads, but instead, it was the mountain views, fall foliage and beautiful lakes and streams that we'll most remember about the trip. 

For resources, we used FarOut, Tami Asar's book on the PCT in Washington and the Halfmile pages. These were all useful to determine current water availability (several long 8-12 mile water carrys) and campsites. With a pace of 8-15 miles/day, we stayed at the following seven camps: Creek Camp, Dewey Lake (great swim), Bouillon Trail (unplanned), Camp Ulrich (crowded), Blowout Mt Trail (missed desired Camp 5), Camp 11, Mirror Lake (another great swim). 

Very few people out on the trail...mostly the tail end of PCT thru-hikers, some of whom shared interesting insights from their long journey (we ignored those who splayed themselves across the trail smoking pot). We didn't see much wildlife...some pikas, marmots and two deer. 

We saw two examples of trail magic...a guy working out of his truck with a full-on multi-course offering to thru-hikers...and a cooler with cold Rainier beers in the Ulrich Cabin. Nice!

Cell service available every few days. Some steep ledges (eyes on trail!) Some wildfire haze. Couple archery hunters (one of whom kindly offered water during our long H2O carry day). Next to no bugs. Lots of berries and mushrooms.

It was very hard to find good trees for food hangs (limbs too short or too high or too low)...we wished we had brought our bulky/heavy but effective bear bins. No issues with critters getting into food, though chipmunks were definitely around at a few campsites.

Trail in good condition (thanks crews) and was generally a reasonable grade.

It was a great fall adventure and we felt this section of the trail exceeded our expectations for pretty views and chance to immerse ourselves in nature.

I saw this loop on a map and thought it might be good, I was right.  The road to the trailhead was a little rough but passable for most vehicles (low clearance would suck). Bumping river is a gentle trail leading up to the PCT. Some trees down here and there. There was one major area where a slide occurred with 100 yds of where do I go.  The PCT was in fine shape for the freeway of hikers.  I was looking for 958A to go to Cougar lake but its evidence is gone. Turned onto American Ridge trail to Swamp lake.  A nice alternative with only a few downed trees.  Flowers in the meadows and some cool views.  The river ford ath the beginning and end of this trip was cool and refreshing.  

Hiked PCT section I from July 11 - October 3 in a series of day hikes only (no overnights). 

• July 11 - Snoqualmie to Windy Pass + Mt Catherine. Highlights include the view coming back south on PCT at Snoqualmie Pass, and the view from Mt Catherine. Olallie Meadow was pretty nice too. 
• July 14 - Windy Pass to Yakima Pass / Twilight Lake. Pretty ho-hum section. 
• July 18 - Stampede Pass to Twilight Lake. Side trip to Stirup Lake was nice! Tried to find trail leading up to Meadow Mtn but I think it’s overgrown. 
• July 31 - Stampede Pass to Tacoma Pass. Fun section, but very long and very dry. Views of Snowshoe Butte were a highlight. 
• August 6 - Tacoma Pass to Green Pass + Blowout Mtn. The small side trip to the top of Blowout was worth it! 
• August 14 - Windy Gap to Green Pass, to Mike Urich cabin and back to Windy Gap. The views of Windy Gap were really spectacular that day - otherwise it was very cloudy. 
• August 18 - Urich Cabin to Arch Rock. The off trail side trip to Arch Rock was totally amazing. The scale of the Norse Peak fire is very striking in this area. 
• August 30 - Crystal Mtn ski resort to Arch Rock. Views of Rainier right from the start for most of the day, ridge walking below Norse Peak. The basin on the east side of Norse is wonderful! 
• Sept 8 - Chinook Pass to Norse Peak. One of the best sections on the trip, views are incredible throughout this area. 
• Sept 16 - Chinook Pass to jct. w Laughingwater Creek trail. The basin just north of the LWC trail is the attraction here :) 
• Sept 27 - LWC trail up to jct w PCT, then south to Bumping River. The basin area south of LWC trail was wonderful and fun of reds and yellow fall color that day!
• October 3 - White Pass to Bumping River and back. This day hike was 26.4m! Started at White Pass at 5am. Elk everywhere- a 12 point buck on the trail that day was the highlight!!
• October 25 - tacked on part of the next section north - Snoqualmie Pass to Kendall Katwalk further up to the pass just below Alaska Mtn. 

Video slide show in the link below!! For 2025: White Pass to the WA border? Maybe!