Foam Creek Basin, Glacier Peak Meadows — Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024

The Foam Creek Basin trail was lovely, though some washed out bits felt sketchy. But we had views stretching from the Enchantments to Mt Index, with a great look at Mt Daniel and Hinman. We were alone until the point marking Foam Creek Basin, where a couple of folks were quietly doing yoga. Finally, we could see Glacier Peak. This would be a good turnaround point, but we were continuing on. The trail goes down sharply from there, down dusty rocks, and then sharply up the other side to the gap.
Cairns led us up to the moraine near the White Chuck Glacier, which had some fabulous rocks to eat our lunch.
From here, we planned to follow the trail on the Green Trails map down to the PCT. We made it to the basin’ outlet without difficulty, and eventually found a trail heading into the lower valley. This trail came and went, and we had to a lot of wayfinding and clambering down steep slopes and creek beds. The valley is spectacular and full of waterfalls, but was really challenging to get through. I realize the recent trip report I read really benefited from a lot of snow being present. We encountered only a tiny couple of patches near the glacier.
We came to a nice campsite, with an inch thick steel plate on the fire ring. No idea how it got there, as there was no clear trail leading away from it. I think around here we might have gotten off track, but after more fording of streams and climbing up heather, we got to the PCT at the campground the map said we’d find.
The PCT was empty, thanks to the fire closure farther north. We encountered only one through-hiker, who scorned those “only obsessed with getting to Canada. This is the most beautiful part!” He was hiking in to the closure and back out again.