Canyon Creek, Seven Pass Loop (Pasayten), East Bank Ross Lake, Ruby Creek, Three Fools Creek & Castle Pass — Saturday, Jun. 29, 2019

The two of us spent 6-days hiking the Canyon Creek variation of the Seven Pass loop, which means Sky Pilot, Holman, Woody, Hopkins, and Castle passes plus the gorgeous and challenging Big Face Basin, ~75 miles total.  If you like walking the ridges, this trip is worth your time.  We started and ended at the Canyon Creek Trailhead on Hwy 20.  Note:  As of July 4th, 2019 both the Jackita Ridge and Canyon Creek trails were "officially" closed. Both were passable in spite of the closures.  Read on for details and make your own decisions.  The wildflowers were near peak in the alpine.  Beyond a salt-curious deer on the East Bank trail, we did not see any significant wildlife, though we saw fresh bear scat every day.  Aside from the few miles where our route hit the hiking superhighway that is the Pacific Crest Trail, we had the wilderness all to ourselves.  We probably saw 150 hikers on the PCT and only 2 other people the other 60 miles of the trip.  In terms of equipment, we were happy to have carried good sandals for the fords at Cascade, Holman, and Big Face Creeks.  We also carried ice axes and crampons based on a previous trip to the Devils Dome area at this time of year, but they proved totally unnecessary the first week of July in 2019.  I wish that I'd thought to use PCT Holman-Castle trip reports as a proxy for snow conditions on the Three Fools and Center Mountain ridges.

Day One.  Canyon Creek Trail to Chancellor (trail 754, 9 miles), there was conflicting information on the web and at the trailhead as to whether trail 754 was open.  Even the Sedro-Wooley forest service office couldn't offer definitive information.  The more official looking signs indicated that the trail had been closed indefinitely since 2011 from Macmillan Creek to Cedar Crossing, but handwritten notes stated that the trail was repaired in April 2019 so we decided to risk this route (as we had already hiked beautiful Jackita Ridge on a previous trip around Devils Dome.)  The Canyon Creek trail to Chancellor is in surprisingly good shape (wide with excellent tread, mostly clear of blowdowns) in spite of its long closure.  I expected a flat, forested valley trail, but Canyon Creek trail has enough ups and downs and peekaboo views that I'll be keeping it in mind as an early season hike in the future.  It's not called "Canyon" Creek for nothing; at many points the trail tops canyon walls hundreds of feet above the water.  The signage at the MacMillan bridge sternly indicated that the trail was closed from there to Cedar Crossing, but as the bridge was intact, we continued, figuring that we would turn around if we hit any serious obstacle.  The trail turns left immediately after crossing the MacMillan creek bridge. (The right hand trail leads to a decent camp above the creek).  The trail between MacMillan and Cedars Crossing traverses multiple rock slide paths with steep drops into the canyon (presumably the reason for trail closure).  I would not take a horse on this section, but the tread seemed stable enough for people, even to a height-and-exposure-averse hiker like myself.  Just after the Cedars Crossing bridge there is an active slide area and the trail is unstable for 30-50 feet, it's only a few feet above the creek so we risked a soaking (note a slip here would be dangerous during spring runoff).  Continue on a couple miles and there is a fine camp just to the right after the bridge crossing to the old Chancellor trailhead.

Day Two. Chancellor to Holman Pass (trails 754 / 752 / 2000, 10.1 miles) Expect wet feet and a bit of route-finding (look for cairns) at the Cascade Creek ford just before you start the switchbacks up Center Mountain.  The tread is faint but fairly easy to follow.  We lost it a few times in the alpine meadows, but always regained it within a minute or two.  Beautiful ridge walking starts here.  The final mile of trail 752 from Sky Pilot to Holman Pass was the most challenging part of our entire trip.  MAJOR old growth blowdowns to clamber over, under, and around, plus the trail was brushy and overgrown thus hard to follow and made significantly less fun by a downpour. (This section of 752 could be a candidate for the WTA Lost Trails project.)  After two days of solitude we were shocked to encounter 10-15 tents at the uninspiring and waterless PCT camp at Holman Pass and wished that we had stopped at the pretty little camp just after the stream crossing early in the descent down to Holman Creek ~5400 ft.  The Holman Pass shelter has collapsed into an unusable den.

Day Three. PCT from Holman Pass to Castle Pass (trail 2000, 13.8 miles)  Gorgeous, gorgeous section of the Pacific Crest Trail.  We were amazed at the number of thru-hikers and trail runners.  We learned that many north-to-south PCT hikers hitch to Harts Pass and hike up to the Canadian border to touch the monument and then double-back for their long trip south. That meant that the uninspiring and buggy Castle Pass camp was crowded with tents shoulder-to-shoulder.  To get water, we hiked about 5 minutes north from Castle Pass on the PCT and then bushwacked a minute off trail into the Route Creek drainage.  If you have the energy, max out your water capacity and forge on about 2 miles farther on the Three Fools trail to solitude at a beautiful, though waterless camp in the meadows at ~6400 feet.

Day Four. Castle Pass to Little Fish Shelter.  (trail 749, 14.1 miles) In the morning, we were happy to escape the shared snoring, farting, and shuffling in the dark that is a PCT camp.  We spent a few minutes locating the Three Fools trail out of Castle Pass among all the bathroom trails of this camp and quickly returned to ridge walking.  Great views for hours in the alpine and through the old burns.  Tread is faint but easy to follow until the final switchbacks down to Big Face Creek.  There is a decent-looking camp in the woods just before (eastside) of the ford.  Trail is hard to follow from Big Face Creek around the low traverse of the Joker Mountain shoulder and back up the drainage.  We lost the trail in the meadows and finally just hiked uphill until we found it again.  I think that the real trail stays to the right of the main watercourse until it hits a small rock face and starts traversing left.  Once back above treeline, the tread returns to faint-but-obvious and the lovely ridge walk resumes.  The descent from 6600’ on the Skagit Peak ridge down to Three Fools Creek at 2900’ is painful.  Ow. Ow. Ow for thousands of steps.  There are some blowdowns but the trail is not hard to follow.  It was a treat to soak our feet at the creekside camp about a mile west from the end of the switchbacks.  Note, while the camp is signed Little Fish Shelter, only scraps of structure remain.  To be clear, this is a different camp from the similarly-named Little Fish Camp a few miles farther on.

Day Five. Little Fish Shelter to May Creek (trails 749, East Bank, 16.8 miles) Mixed day of forest and lakeside trails seemed flat after the previous day's exertions.  The shelter at Little Fish Camp has a new roof but it is locked up tight with all openings nailed shut.  We had originally planned to cheat and use the Ross Lake water taxi for our return, but low lake levels and no answer on the resort phone conspired to give us the full loop.  The East Bank trail above Ross Lake is a glorious work of trail engineering.

Day Six. May Creek to Canyon Creek Trailhead.  (trails East Bank and Ruby Creek, 10.7 miles)  It is satisfying to complete a loop, but this was the least interesting trail day.  The Ruby Creek section parallels highway 20 so the final miles are more car noise than creek babble.  Sometimes the trail is at eye level with the highway and you can easily see the faces of the drivers.  The Jackita Ridge trail (738) bridge over Canyon Creek was crushed by a fallen tree over the winter 2018-19.  My husband chose dry feet and a serious balancing act to cross using the aforementioned fallen tree and broken bridge.  I chose to pull out my sandals and ford the creek instead.  In this low-snow year, fording the creek just downstream of the bridge was challenging but doable in early July.  Safety reminder, if you chose to ford, don't forget to undo your waist and sternum straps so that you can slip out of your pack in the event of a fall.  Happy trails!