Upper Lyman Lake, Spider Meadow and Phelps Basin, Spider Gap - Buck Creek Pass Loop, Buck Creek Pass, Suiattle Pass & Image Lake via Miners Ridge — Monday, Jul. 23, 2012

Central Cascades

We did a 4 night hike starting at the trailhead to Spider Meadow, going over Spider Gap, past Lyman Lakes, over Cloudy Pass, over Suiattle Pass, a side trip to Image Lake, over Miner's Ridge and Buckcreek Pass and then back down to Liberty. Beautiful hiking with some beautiful wildlife! Still some snow patches/fields on the ground with some sketchy snow field crossings in areas. The snow was pretty slushy and melting fairly quickly, so I would think it will be gone in the next week or two. VERY muddy in areas due to the snow melting. The rivers were running high and fast making for some interesting crossings as well (had to ford most creeks). We met a man who had fallen down a snowfield into a rock at the Suiattle Hikers Shortcut and had hurt himself pretty significantly (he thought). He recommended not going that way. We went the "long" way through this section and it wasn't bad at all. There were a few bugs but nothing too overwhelming. Upper Lyman and Image Lake were still pretty frozen, but Lower Lyman was clear.