Inspired by my folks’ 2001 trip and Hulk’s 2015 report, I visited Gamma Ridge. Happy to report that just in the past month or two the Gamma Ridge trail has received some long overdue maintenance!!

Slept in my truck and hit the Suiattle trail at dawn. Great shape except the multi blowdown spot. The “new” PCT section between Canyon Creek and Vista Creek is a highway including the awesome Suiattle bridge. There’s a narrow natural bridge across Vista Creek practically in the same location as the old washed out stringer bridge. There’s a portion of the old bridge resting on the east bank, and the Upper Suiattle trail (former PCT) is just behind it. Beyond Vista Creek the trail is not maintained but is getting a surprising amount of traffic and easy to follow. My GPS got 1.7 miles from PCT at Vista Cr to Gamma trail. You can stone hop across Gamma Creek and there’s also a large natural bridge to use when high water. Large tree obscures trail on east side of the creek (parallels trail for 100 feet) but you pick up trail on the other end of the tree. Further in there’s a very large Doug fir across trail that requires detour off trail. The trail junction 0.25 mile before Gamma Ridge trail is not obvious but take a sharp right there (photo). 

At the start of Gamma trail there is a “scarecrow” (photo). Yes, that’s a chainsaw chain around the chest and a nearly new small chainsaw bar and cover at the feet. Odd. Looks like most of the recent traffic has continued up the Upper Suiattle from this junction. In the first mile of Gamma trail there are intermittent stretches that have been logged out this summer, along with brushing adjacent to the cut logs. In between these maintained stretches little work was done but the trail isn’t hard to follow. For about 100 yards below and above the campsite at elevation 3400, the trail is difficult to follow, partially destroyed by streambed, and has no recent maintenance. But there are some flags. There are two streams in close proximity here, first one is dry (adjacent to campsite) but second one is flowing nicely (just at base of switchbacks). Last water until elevation 5500. Just above the flowing stream the trail becomes clear as switchbacks ascend the ridge. The partial logging out from this summer continues to about half way up the switchbacks. Beyond there expect minimal maintenance but occasional flags will guide you. There are several large blowdown on the switchbacks that are moderately difficult to cross. At about 0.9 mile above 3400 ft campsite, pink flags take a detour off trail straight uphill then rejoin. Silver fir saplings obscure much of the trail here for the next 0.2 mile to elevation 4670. This is where the trail gains the ridgetop and the “jack strawed mess” described by Hulk begins. This blowdown stretch goes for 0.25 mile (look for flags). After the blowdown mess the trail is difficult to follow up to elevation 5340 but brush is light and intermittent sections of trail can be found. Pick up the trail again on the ridgetop before it makes a long switchback to the left and back (thicker brush). Hornets nest at 5420. Pretty easy to follow trail from here on. Campsite at elevation 5500 with small spring on Dusty Creek side. From campsite to elevation 6020 trail easy to follow through subalpine meadows. I turned around at 6020 where the trail apparently ends and open meadows abound. Gamma Ridge trail to elevation 6020 about 3.7 miles. I didn’t find any snow and couldn’t see any nearby from 6020. The cloud ceiling was hovering just below Miners Ridge and Image Lake, across the valley to the north. Wispy clouds moving up the valleys made for a cool time lapse (YouTube). 

I had a few days to myself and decided to grab my map, a pack, and a snack and head off into the Glacier Peak Wilderness. My route ended up being Phelps Creek TH -> Phelps Creek Trail -> Spider Gap -> Lyman Lakes -> Cloudy/Suiattle Passes -> Miners Ridge Trail -> Image Lake (Side trip to Canyon Lake) -> Miners Ridge Trail to PCT -> PCT -> Upper Suiattle River Trail -> Triad Creek Trail -> Buck Creek Pass Trail -> Buck Pass TH -> road walk back to Phelps Creek TH.

Trail conditions:

Phelps Creek Trail: Excellent, lots of bugs and water on the trail. Campsites melted out at the bottom of Spider glacier.

Spider Gap: Snowfield from bottom of Spider Glacier most of the way to Upper Lyman Lake.

Lyman Lake Trail: Lots of water and mud on the trail. Trail rerouted due to a bridge washout across Railroad Creek (see below).

Miners Ridge Trail (Cloudy Pass to Image Lake): Excellent

Canyon Lake Trail: Signed as unmaintained, ~160 trees across trail (mostly small and cut-able with a hand saw or katanaboy). Overgrown and poor tread in many places. Much tread sloughing due to brush on the uphill side of the trail.

Miners Ridge Trail and PCT (Miners Ridge lookout to Upper Suiattle Jct): Excellent, a couple trees across PCT.

Upper Suiattle River Trail (PCT to Dusty Creek): ~85 trees across trail. Dusty Creek ford was mid-thigh in the late afternoon. Tread easy to follow except for the section up-stream of the Dusty Creek crossing where I had to fight through brush for a few hundred yards before I found good trail again.

Upper Suiattle River Trail (Dusty Creek to Suiattle River): ~370 trees across trail ranging from small stuff to big old growth. Tread surprisingly good and easy to follow! Some brush work done recently. The Suiattle River ford was terrifying in the late afternoon and 2 feet lower but still unsafe in the morning near sunrise. Found a log about a mile downstream to cross.

Triad Creek Trail: ~425 trees across trail ranging from small stuff to big old growth. The trail isn't obvious from the river due to big blow-down and erosion but the old tread is clear after you gain a few hundred feet from the river. Lost the trail in the swampy meadows a mile below Buck Pass and had to just aim toward Helmet Butte.

Buck Creek Pass Trail: ~70 trees across trail. Tread in good condition and green starting to appear in the burned area.

Trip report

There are a lot of quiet places in the Glacier Peak Wilderness that have become even more remote since the big floods that washed out the roads on the west side of the mountain. One of the places on the map I've wanted to visit for a while has been the upper part of the Suiattle River and so I made a loop (essentially the classic Phelps Creek/Buck Creek loop with a big add-on) that took in this region along with some other trails that I've only hiked in fog and rain before.

I started at the Phelps Creek TH on Sunday afternoon and was greeted by a line of cars and hikers on their way back home. The trail wanders shady forest for a while but abruptly hits meadows and reveals the magnificent Phelps Creek valley.

The best view however, require a steep hike up to the base of the Spider Glacier.

For even better views continue up the Spider Glacier to spider gap. Micro-spikes made the hike up the glacier considerably easier.

I descended the snowfield from the Spider Gap to Upper Lyman Lake where I met some goats.

Head downhill from Spider Gap to a large cairn to find the Lyman Lake trail.

The Lyman Lake trail has been rerouted due to a bridge washout. I missed the sign at the trail-head but here it is.

I ended up following the closed trail to the washout.

A knee deep ford was available near the washout.

I continued to Cloudy Pass to camp and enjoyed the views of the Lyman Lakes below the Spider Gap.

Monday I crossed Suiattle Pass and took the Miners ridge trail to Image lake. This trail has all kinds of neat trash leftover from the past and some of the best views of Glacier Peak you'll get.

At Image lake I decided to take a side trip to Canyon Lake which was signed as unmaintained. The trail was sometimes snow covered, damaged by water, and neglected.

Canyon Lake was pretty and I decided to camp there and climb to one of the high vantage points around the lake for evening vistas.

On the way into Canyon Lake I lost the trail in avalanche debris and wasted much time and energy going the wrong way. The trail shown on the USGS maps is not where it is currently routed. Go downhill (not up) when you get to the avalanche debris.

Tuesday I returned to Image Lake and hiked up to the Miners Ridge lookout.

The volunteer there was busy painting but kindly invited me up to checkout the lookout and enjoy the views of Glacier Peak and the Suiattle River drainage.

I dropped from Miners Ridge to the PCT where I encountered my first other hikers since Sunday (the PCT is basically I-5) crossed the Suiattle on the sweet new bridge and made my way to the Upper Suiattle River Trail where the fun would begin. The trail was pretty decent and easy until I got to Vista Creek. Cairns marked the way along the creek and I fell in trying to cross a log (I'm top heavy) and ended up "fording" the creek.

On the far side of Vista Creek no trail was apparent. I crashed in and out of paths into the brush where apparently others had done the same. Eventually I consulted my map, pointed myself in the direction of where the trail should go and started schwacking. After a couple hundred yards (it felt like more) I found real tread that became very nice trail as it climbed a ridge between Vista Creek and the Suiattle River.

I crossed many downed logs but was happy to see evidence of recent brushing as I hiked to where the trail crosses the Suiattle. At the Suiattle one must cross the river to continue. The river was raging in the late afternoon and the prospect of crossing it seemed terrifying. I camped in the comfortable sand at the river hoping the morning would bring mellower water.

I climbed out of bed early, packed up camp without breakfast and started searching for a way across the Suiattle before the sun started cooking the snowfields above. I probed upstream and downstream of the river crossing for an hour or two and went up to waist deep at about a dozen good looking spots but could not get across the main body of the current without being swept downstream.

Eventually I found a log spanning the main part of the river that I was able to inchworm across. Note in the picture that in the afternoon the water level is even with the bottom of the log and would be treacherous.

After crossing I emptied my pack of its soaked contents, laid them out to dry, and celebrated with breakfast and tequila.

I found the Triad Creek Trail right where it should be on the map by climbing from the riverbank up through steep blow-down. These upper Suiattle valleys have a lot of magnificent old growth that has fallen across the Upper Suiattle and Triad Creek trails.

Near the river the Triad Creek trail is very steep and scenic. Expect to brush wack, climb tough logs, deal with mud, and frequently hold onto plants to not fall down the hillside.

After crossing many downed logs I made it to the unnamed creek draining west from Buck Creek Pass. At this point the trail became on again/off again in the meadows and I headed uphill toward Helmet Butte to reach the pass.

The Buck Creek Pass trail was uneventful. Greenery is returning to the large burned swathe

and the hiker bridge remains defunct.

The road to the Phelps Creek TH has gotten considerably worse since I biked it earlier this year but is passable in a passenger car. Water ruts and lots of dust.

<3 the Glacier Peak Wilderness!