Cramer Lake, Cowlitz Trail, Twin Sisters Lakes, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section I - White Pass to Snoqualmie Pass & Shellrock Lake — Friday, Sep. 26, 2008

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

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.