Little Giant Pass to Spider Gap, two night trip.
Smoke Conditions: A couple of fires in the area, probably most significantly is the Cougar Creek Fire, resulting in a bit of haze most days. Views were still spectacular. Make sure to check current conditions (inciweb).
Day 1 - Little Giant TH to below High Pass: River was under knee deep - 10 am crossing. Trail up to the Little Giant Pass is in good condition. From the pass on, it is standard unmaintained trail conditions - overgrown and washed out in places - but easy to follow. Made camp on the way up towards High Pass.
Day 2 - High Pass to Upper Lyman: Used an ice axe on the north side of High Pass, but crossing wasn't difficult. Trail to Buck Creek Pass, over Middle Ridge to the PCT, and up towards Suiattle Pass was in good shape over all. Just a few blow downs here and there. PCT is closed north of Suiattle Pass due to another small fire, but spur over to Cloudy Pass is open. The bridge on Upper Lyman Trail is still out, so the we took the well flagged re-rout following West Lyman Spur to the upper lake to make camp. There are a couple creek crossings on the spur.
Day 3 - Upper Lyman to out Phelps Creek TH: Neither Lyman snowfield nor spider required an ice axe. Used micro spikes, but others didn't. Phelps Creek Trail is in good condition. Traffic out was low, so we ended up walking the road 6 miles or so back to the car. Next time we would stash bikes.
Comments