Mill Creek — Saturday, Jun. 4, 2016

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

Hiked the Chancellor Creek trail to the Mill Creek junction and then took the Mill Creek "trail" into the Azurite Mine area. I climbed Mt. Ballard as well. The info posted at the start of the Chancellor Creek trail as to what mileage the trail is impassable is incorrect, also, unless you are trying to ride a unicycle while wearing clown shoes and juggling, it is definitely passable. The Mill Creek trail is definitely in the hierarchy of the worst trails I have ever schwacked and for context yes I have done the Bachelor Creek trail twice and the border section of the Chilliwack to name a couple. Trail this bad is immeasurable in distance, that being said, it is there, the tread exists. The burned section at the start is uncomfortable, scratchy and hot with a noticeable steepness to the terrain. As it rounds the corner and the aspect changes the foliage becomes more lush and at times you are crawling on all fours to navigate vine maple and then suddenly you will pop into wide open trail in a forest. When it finally merges with the Cady Pass trail it just becomes a road bed with washouts until the mine site where it starts to degrade again towards Azurite Pass. Cool stuff back there and the surrounding peaks are impressive. Expect green belays on trail and the opportunity for consequential missteps, do not attempt without some form of GPS and do keep looking for sawed branches and trees when you think you are totally off trail, finally, when you think you have lost all hope and the trail will just disappear into oblivion know that it does go through if you just schwack hard enough.