Golden Horn - Snowy Lakes — Friday, Aug. 13, 2010

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

We left Rainy Pass around noon on Friday Aug 13, and after a half mile or so, I discovered I'd left my single trekking pole behind in the parking lot; I guess it's not enough of a habit that I miss it when it's not in my hand. Off to a great start. We continued on and I asked one of the several thru-hikers/runners to set it on our car if she saw it. Bless her, it was waiting on our windshield when we returned on Sunday. The temperature wasn't overly warm, and in fact some clouds cooled things off in the afternoon. The trail to Cutthroat Pass is in great shape, though the log with the sloping flat surface over Porcupine Creek would be sporty when wet. We had first lunch on the knoll south of the pass, then headed toward Granite Pass. I had read about the fork in the trail where one should stay left, heading up around the end of the ridge. It's pretty obvious when you get there; it looks as if the right fork was a mistake by the trail crew when they discovered that around the corner are unstable cliffs, so they rerouted the trail higher. The only snowpatch near any part of the trail was at the bottom of the short switchbacks at the top of the descent. My wife's not too fond of skinny out-sloping trails across exposed slopes, but the section of trail across the four slide zones below Tower Mtn were fine, though I see why they're not recommended for stock -- at least any horses you like. The flowers were out in places, and we had been warned by hikers we met that the mosquitoes were out in profusion at the lakes and the junction campsite. They were indeed. When the breeze picked up it would disperse them, but otherwise they were plentiful and enthusiastic. We camped at the meadow where the way trail takes off for Snowy Lakes. There was a tent in the main site, belonging to a woman who was doing the Rainy Pass to Harts Pass segment of the PCT. We looked around for alternative sites nearby, and finding nothing decent, set up in the meadow a discreet distance away. The next day, we discovered that there's a pretty nice site 5 minutes up the trail toward the lakes. There are also lots of sites at the lakes, particularly Upper Snowy Lake, but after the 9.5 mile hike in we weren't inclined to climb the 500 feet in the afternoon sun. The next morning, we relocated our tent to the main site after the woman continued on her way, then went up to the lakes. What a spectacular area! While my partner lounged at the upper lake, I went up to the ridge between Golden Horn and Tower Mountain and explored around for a couple of hours, then returned and jumped in the lake to cool off. We headed back down to our tent to find that we had been joined by five other tents. Logical for a Saturday night, I suppose. Nice enough folks, in for the weekend except for one Canadian couple who were going from Rainy Pass to Manning Park. Sunday morning we packed up and headed out. Lots of trail runners doing the one way route between Rainy Pass and the Cutthroat trailhead. The hottest part of the trip was the drive home, but a stop at Cascadian Farms alleviated that a bit.