North Fork Skykomish River, Pass Creek, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass, Little Wenatchee River, Pilot Ridge & Blue Lake High — Thursday, Sep. 1, 2022

Every year for many years, my wife and I have done a 10-day backpack. We're getting on, so we didn't hike every day this time and our days were quite short.

This year's started up the NF Skykomish, which was in very good condition, then turned right onto the Pass Creek trail. The first night, we stayed at the large camp just before the NF Sky river crossing. Heading up the Pass Creek trail, we soon passed a nice 1-tent campsite on the other side of the Pass Creek crossing, easy on a small footlog. The Pass Creek Trail was also in very good condition. We spent our 2nd and 3rd nights at the large campsite where the Pass Creek Trail joins the PCT, just us and about 10 thru-hikers. New pit toilet here and excellent water.

On day 4, we hiked our very favorite trail, the PCT, north to Lake Sally Ann where my wife had her first backpack overnight, about 40 years ago. The PCT of course is in perfect condition. Much of the camping at this popular lake is now on dirt. On the other hand, there's a pit toilet. The FS trail crews have been very active the past couple years, putting in new pit toilets, and we greatly appreciate not finding the woods full of crossed sticks and toilet paper. 

Day 5 was north to Meander Meadow. We hiked down the Little Wenatchee trail to get there, which is in poor condition. It seems not to have been brushed in at least 10 years. It was a fight even going downhill. Needs some shovel work, too. The camping there was excellent with another pit toilet and very good water. The camping area probably has a spot for maybe 30 tents, but the trailhead was closed due to fire, so we had the place to ourselves. Very few hikers drop the 500' down just to have a nice camp with the sound of flowing water. We took another day off here.

On day 7 we decided that the Little Wenatchee would be even less fun uphill and decided to take the southern trail from the Meadow up to the PCT. The start was a bit hard to find in the meadow, but the switchbacks on the hillside were easy to spot so we did find it. The trail was well built and though obviously little used, it was vastly better than the Little Wenatchee. I would give it a Good. That is, until we reached the ridgeline where it forked.

We could see a trail heading back toward the PCT/Little Wenatchee junction, but the trail on the map is shown on the south side of the ridge, meeting the PCT much further to the south, so we took that one. After a bit, it became obvious that this trail has been completely abandoned. The fact that it was by far the more traveled was only because of the out-and-back traffic after hikers hit the bad stuff. We persisted, following what looked like the signs of passage of one other person this year. It was quite a struggle through heavy cover over considerable exposure. Not recommended. It became normal trail again a few tenths before we reached the PCT.

We took the PCT to the Bald Eagle (Curry Gap) Trail, which doesn't seem to be listed in the WTA database though that's how it's signed. We took the long way around to our next camp at Blue Lake, following the Bald Eagle and then what was signed as the Pilot Ridge trail (though that didn't make any sense) to Lower and then upper Blue Lake. That was a tougher go than we expected as the trail was quite rough and had more elevation gain and loss that we expected. I'd give it a Fair. 

Nights 7 and 8 we spent at Blue Lake. There were only a couple other hikers there the first night and none the second. There are 2 (two) new pit toilets at Blue Lake, both of them clearly visible from the main trail, one with both front and back views. Whatever. Wonderful place. 

Fires: The three fires on the Little Wenatchee had been burning for many days before we started. They were burning slowly and not moving except a little uphill. We had smoke from them when the wind was from the east and very good air when it was from the west. Even with an easterly wind, the smoke wasn't too bad. At Blue Lake though we saw smoke beginning to fill the valley to our west. There had been no fire there when we started our hike. It was a long way away, between us and the Monte Cristo group so we didn't worry.

On day 9, we headed out over the High Route to get back to the Bald Eagle trail. It wasn't as difficult as I had imagined and went fine. There's exposure, but it's a built trail and the footing was about as good as it gets for this sort of thing. It's quite steep, over 20° for a lot of it. We hiked the Bald Eagle Trail to its junction with the NF Skykomish, and then down to a very good camp at the junction of 3 streams. Down in the valley, we hiked through acres of blueberries, yum. 

Day 10 was out to the car at the NF Sky/West Cady Ridge/Quartz Creek trailheads. The drive home was interesting. After driving over Jack's Pass we drove down the Beckler River road. Down on the pavement section we drove below a considerable fire burning on our side of the ridge. At the junction with Hwy 2, instead of heading for Everett, we were directed to Leavenworth-97-I90-I405, etc. The smoke we'd seen was from the Boldt fire.

We've always carried a PLB (personal locator beacon) for emergencies. However if the wind had been different, we might not have been able to get out. If it had been really different, it could have come up the NF valley and possible gotten us. So next time, we'll be bringing a satellite communicator, like all the thru-hikers are using now. Just in case.

In our opinion, the Little Wenatchee River Trail and the trail we took out of Meander Meadow are perfect candidates for WTA's Lost Trails Found program!