Image Lake via Miners Ridge, Suiattle River Trail — Tuesday, Aug. 17, 1999

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

My brother and I set out at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, hoping to do the Suiattle River #784 and Upper Suiattle 798 for a three-day backpacking trip. We made about 15 miles the first day, until we lost the Upper Suiattle River trail in the first mile or so, right after it dropped down into the Dusty Creek creekbed. There is a great deal of blowdown on the Upper Suiattle river trail. Evening was rapidly approaching, and a storm was blowing in, so we high-tailed it back to the campsites near the junction of the Suiattle River trail and the PCT, right at the Suiattle River. We got the tent set up just as marble-sized hail started falling (ouch!). The next morning we abandoned our plans to head up the Upper Suiattle river trail, and instead headed up to Miner's Ridge. 38 switchbacks later (no kidding!) we got to Image Lake, which was completely occupied by what appeared to be a Boy Scout troop. We were already incredibly tired, but we headed past to what we thought was Lady Camp and camped there. In hindsight, the location that we camped appears to have been just a flat spot near a latrine on the way to Lady Camp, with some dirt spots, and we probably commited a major high-impact mistake by camping there. After we had set up, we figured this out and stuck to the dirt to try to minimize that impact. I'd appreciate if someone familiar with the area could shoot me an email and let me know if that was indeed Lady Camp or not, and whether or not camping where we did was all well and good or was indeed a mistake. The campsites nearest Image Lake appear to be very popular, so be prepared to camp elsewhere. On our trip down, we encountered several groups of people on the way up. The views from Image Lake area were absolutely incredible. I've got some photos up at http://www.nwlink.com/~tjohns/minersridge.htm but let me caution you that the photos should serve only to inspire you to go there yourself. While the photos are indeed great, they certainly do not do the entire experience justice. We saw quite a few chipmunks and lots of marmots (I didn't know marmots GOT THAT BIG!). On the Upper Suiattle River trail we ran into a climber who was scouting Gamma Peak and who had seen a sow bear and two cubs, and someone heading down from Image Lake also mentioned seeing a bear up on miner's ridge, but we did not see any bear in either location. We did, however, hang our food! The bugs were not too bad until we got up the second morning, near Miner's Ridge. We each had a good layer of 100% DEET bug juice, so that might be one reason. Keep the stuff away from your gear, though. There was plenty of water, and all of the water crossings were very very shallow or had a bridge or footlog. I highly recommend getting your water from the side streams rather than the Suiattle River itself - the river's running pretty fast and the suspended silt clogged my filter after filtering only about a quart of water. Backflushing and soaking fixed the problem, and it was certainly a hassle. I certainly learned a lesson about filtering - filter the already-clear water, especially if it's abundant!