Cascade Pass and Sahale Arm — Friday, Aug. 7, 1998

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

One of the best day hikes anywhere on one of the nicest days imaginable. If it is cool in the North Cascades, it is usually cloudy. Not this time! Cascade River Road is in good condition, though rather washboardy. Last three miles are quite bumpy, but entirely passable for normal pasenger cars. The trailhead itself here is one of the more spectacular places you'll encounter, overlooked by the hanging glaciers on Johannesburg - just far enough away to be safe. For the hiker, things just get better - even when you can't see how there is any room for improvement. The trail to Cascade Pass is so gentle that almost anyone in good health can do it. The Sahale Arm trail, which branches right from the trail to Stehekin perhaps 50 yards past Cascade Pass, is quite steep at the start, moderate in the middle, and at the end is about as steep and plagued with loose rock as you can get and still call it a hike. The view ahead at the end of the first steep stretch is a jaw-dropper, even after Cascade Pass - down to Doubtful Lake, up to Sahale Peak, and across to waterfalls and snowfields. People whose idea of hiking doesn't include loose rock and scree may want to stop next to a delightful brook and mini-meadow at about the 7000' level (this is pretty much the end of the greenery, except for a few isolated spots). Some good bare rock here to sit on and enjoy views of ranks of serrated ranges, as well as Baker and Bonanza. The terminally determined can continue up to 7600' atop the final ridge before Sahale Glacier, adding Glacier Peak to the view. Trail is snowfree all the way, apart from a tiny token snowpatch just before Cascade Pass. Few mosquitoes, flies not bad. A bit of smoke on the east side from the Lake Chelan fire, blown away from the Pass by afternoon westerly breezes. Four bear sightings, from at least three separate bears, none very close to people. Some people were confidently identifying the biggest one as a Grizzly, but its profile didn't look Grizzly-like to us. If you do this hike, allow lots of time.