The Seattle Times article had one thing right. There are lots of wildflowers on this hike. But the trip was definitely not snow free. The first mile of the Sheep Lake trail definitely has great wildflowers blooming. Beargrass, Paintbrush, Lupine, Honeysuckle and many others are blooming. This part of the trail is (other than at the parking lot) mostly snow free. Once the trail turns away from Hwy 410, the snow becomes more regular and will require a bit of route finding. The Glacier Lilies are in full bloom and many other flowers are working their way up. Above Sheep Lake, the snowmelt is running down the trail. Makes for both a wet and muddy hike. The route from Sheep Lake to Sourdough gap has some snow but nothing overly treacherous. There are some nice flowers in bloom at Sourdough gap. We pushed on to Bear Gap. The bowl on the north side of Sourdough is nicely snowed in. There are some tricky crossings and interesting route finding to get down the bowl and back on the Pacific Crest Trail on to Bear Gap. Once we crossed the snowfields at Sourdough, most of the route to Bear Gap was snow free. Flowers are in bloom. The only critters we saw today were your Ground Squirrel and Pikas. There were tracks in the snow from a large hooved animal and there were some hiker reports about bear in the area. Unfortunately we didn’t see either. This is a good trip. The trail will have some snow on it for the next couple of weeks. But the alpine symphony of flowers is just beginning and given our late start will likely last most of August. Happy Trails. Teton Bruce

A beautiful fall day in the mountains to remind us why we live in the Northwest. Started from Chinook Pass and followed the PCT to Sourdough Gap. Just north of the gap as the PCT switchbacks and descends, stay straight and a side trail heads up in a few hundred years to another gap. From this gap, you'll pass a sign marking Mt. Rainier National Park. The trail then continues down to Crystal Lakes. As the trail does a looping switchback, leave the trail and begin to climb north up open slopes towards point '6719' staying on the westside of the ridge. From the point, it's an easy walk-up to Crystal Mountain. From the summit, we saw all of the Washington Volcanoes plus Mt. Hood and the Olympics. This route is lovely the whole way and avoids walking up through the scarred slopes of the ski area.

What a perfect day for a hike! No clouds, cool temps and just a hint of a breeze! This trail is popular, so don't go without expecting company, but mid-week we only met a few people coming down (we got a late start.) This trail is obviously popular for horseback riding as there was plenty of "signs" scattered around the trail. If your dog is like our lab, they might think these are tasty treats so keep an eye out. The trailhead has to be the easiest to find of any we've hiked yet, and although there are plenty of side trails and game trails, it's pretty easy to find which way to go. We took a quick break at Sheep Lake, which was clear as a bell, but showed no signs of it's namesake. A quick dip for the pups and back to business! From the lake it's an easy stride on a gentle incline through meadows that must have been stunning last month, but all of the foliage has gone to seed. The huckleberries are still beautiful, but if you're looking for berries, you'll need to go to the store. The moderately difficult part of the hike comes when you reach the base of the spine. This is where the majority of the elevation gain is achieved in a short distance, but shouldn't insurmountable for most. Upon reaching the gap (it'll be pretty obvious when you are there) you can look down the back side of the spine or turn around to survey your handywork. Off to the left there is a small trail the follows the bowl around to a viewpoint to look down on Crystal Lake and up at Mount Rainier. From the gap it looked like part of it may have washed out, and as we were already running out of daylight, we decided to head back. All in all, a great day hike! Almost no mud, very few bugs, and plenty of sunshine! Do make sure to wear some good, sturdy shoes, as the trail gets pretty rocky in places.

A mystical day in the Mountains with most types of weather from fog with wind to sunny skies. Our group left Seattle about 8:45 with a coffee and gas break in Enumclaw and then on to Chinook Pass where we started (Tipso Lake parking lot). In the fog the trail over Chinook Pass to the PCT was hard to see so we wound up on 410 to the trail head. I noted with sadness that the PCT trail bridge over Chinook is down (been a few years since I was last at Chinook Pass). The PCT starts from the pass as a broad road and thins to a normal trail once you pass a parking lot with rest rooms and an area for horse trailers just below the pass (a good place to start the hike). Once over Chinook Pass the fog began to lift and we had sun patches on the way to Sheep Lake. The trail was in good shape, somewhat dry despite the weather and most amazingly with flowers still in bloom. We saw Mountain Pasqueflower (Old Man of the Mountains), Indian Paint Brush, Lupine, and Golden Daisy. The flowers were past their prime but still beautiful. We also found some huckleberries on the early part of the trail which were good eating. We had lunch at Sheep Lake and headed to Sourdough Gap. The Gap appears to be far above the lake but is a fairly easy walk on good trail. Views of the Cascades and Sheep Lake are excellent from the Gap. The way back to the car was easy and quick. My sense is that our trip took about 4.5 hours with breaks and some of us found the trail over Chinook Pass on the way back making an easier return to our group van. I estimate we walked about 7 miles with 1100 to 1200 feet of elevation gain/loss. On the way back we did get a great view of Mt. Rainier, a great way to end the trip.

We parked 0.2 miles east of the park boundary at the TH for the PCT. The trail is 6 miles RT from here with an 1100 foot gain. We had a beautiful sunny day and almost no wind at the gap! We have done this trail several times before and the weather has always been cold, windy, and foggy at the gap so this was a very pleasant experience allowing us to rest here for awhile. Bob went east of the gap along the ridge for a better view of Mt Rainier than we had seen on the way up. Mt Adams, the Goat Rocks and Mt St Helens could be seen in the distance. There were several camped at the lake and we met many day hikers coming out as we were going in. We talked to 2 groups of through hikers along the way. Coming down from the gap we spotted 4 goats on a ridge west of the lake. The berries along the beginning of the trail seemed small and dry and didn't say, "Eat me!"