I started up the Greenwater River trail 1176 at 8 am in perfect weather, hiking through a green heaven, water always close by. Six miles later, by 11 am, I had arrived at Lost Lake, after branching onto Lost Creek trail 1185 at 3 miles. I was just in time to see a couple across the lake go in the water for a long swim. After savoring a leisurely lunch at a pleasant lakeside campsite, I decided to test the water myself. After all, much of the lake was surrounded by a grassy shore of 30 feet or more and the lake bottom looked firm, not mucky. I quickly concluded that this is one of the best swimming lakes in the entire Cascades – and I’ve had many years of experience.
By noon I was headed up the trail to Noble Knob, 2 ½ miles and 2000’ of elevation gain on a warm afternoon, but with good trail and gorgeous wild flowers in peak season. Met many hikers in from Corral Pass at the trail junction before the Knob. Glorious view from the rounded, old lookout site on top, from the Snoqualmie Peaks to the north, then south to the immense Emmons Glacier and Willis Wall on Mt Rainier. By around 3 pm I was headed to Corral Pass myself, contouring on Dalles Ridge trail 1184, shared with mountain bikes (just outside the Norse Peak Wilderness boundary), then back in the wilderness down to Echo Lake on trail 1176 again.
At Corral Pass a trail crew assured me that logging out the trail below was on their list, yet the worst blow down was actually on the Arch Rock trail 1187 just after its start at Echo Lake. I found a good campsite here by the inlet creek but none of the easy lake access of Lost Lake; that is, brushy shore as far as the eye could see. Mosquitos here. Discovered the next morning that a local way trail continued to more campsites north along the eastern shore, but I was headed 2000’ and 3 miles up 1187 to the PCT. I found some blowdown that needs clearing, mostly on the lower half of the trail, but overall the trail was in better shape than I had expected, well cleared and mostly easy to follow.
A previous group had marked much of trail 1187 with red ribbons, though I found these unnecessary and was annoyed when a few of these were not actually on the trail. The only sketchy spots were in heavy forest litter at the beginning and then near the top in “Airplane Meadow”. At around 5700’ there were some cairns to get me started on renewed track after it disappeared in the first small meadow. This tread climbs through narrow meadow next to Saddle Springs, then disappears again, along with the spring, upon entering the big meadow. Here a prominent sign in the center points the way to the PCT, along with an 1187 sign on the far edge, where good tread resumes. The route finding here may be a bit trickier on the way down, angling slightly to the right of the Echo Lake sign in the middle of the big meadow as you search for the springs, then again at the bottom, angling slightly uphill to the right from the last cairn through the small meadow to resumed tread in the forest. Never did see the airplane.
The PCT north 7.7 miles to the Maggie Creek trail was wonderful, as usual, with a trail crew taking out the last few blowdown through this stretch. Met several family groups, one fast and ultralight through hiker headed to Mexico, and a young woman headed to California, presumably after she figures out to lighten her 45lb pack. Even got a phone call from my sister (“Ravensong”), likely aided by the communications towers on Raven Roost just to the east, just as I heard a real raven nearby. My “Halfmile’s PCT” app worked marvelously, with plenty of water in Arch Rock creek, even as the forest itself was drier than normal.
Trail 1186 down to Maggie Creek was great, then the going got tough on the long contour over to the Greenwater River. This section is thick with blowdown, some old, some new, much worse than 1187. In fact there were few signs of hikers, with the final discouragement being a ford of the Greenwater River, though I found this was easy enough with hiking poles and camp sandals (Crocs). However the trail was well designed and well built, through beautiful forest– a good hike once logged out. The Greenwater River trail, of course, sees heavy usage, yet it too still has a few blowndown. For my final night I camped at 6 pm at a nice fisherman’s campsite a couple of miles down river. Did about 17 ½ miles each day, my PCT average as “Old Goat”.
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