Horseshoe Basin — Monday, Jun. 11, 2001

North Cascades > Pasayten

Well, bouded by not knowing where the rain would fall, and not having ever been in the pasayten, headed up to Horseshoe basin just out of Loomis. The drive from Seattle took around 8 hours, but we stopped and tromped though the meadows of Washington Pass. The bog flats right opposite the highway of the base of Liberty Bell, was a breath taking layout of forest, ice and rock. From there the road up to Iron Gate from Loomis was not bad, paved, and then the Iron Gate, with ruts, but Joe and I creaped his neon all the way to the trailhead at Iron Gate. Unless you have a low rider, and not familiar with Mountain Roads, the warnings against the road were overated. We arrived at the trail had at about 9pm, In the beginning the trail followed a wooded ridgeline with small stands of trees soo thick, it reminded me of tales of the Black Forest, once crossed a creek about 1 mile in, the trail began a realively light accent to the base of a pass (can't remember the name of this pass at the moment) but the elevation gain was not bad at all just above 1000 ft over about 4 miles. At this time the it was dark, and the head lamps went on. The trail is a good night hinking trail, due to the open nature of the high county meadows (looking more like pasture). We accended to the pass and set up camp. The wind was cool, but the Basin Spread out before me, and Arnold Mountain and beyond were in clear view. Now what we found in the morning was a prime example on changing weather in the North Cascades. We awoke to about 3 to 4 inchs of Snow. The pass was in a white out condition. Due to the ruts on the road, and not wanting to push the car out of each one of them, we turned back. Once below 6500 feet the snow began to melt, and it was clear that we could have porably waited out the storm. But oh well. My take on this trail is that if you are a beginning backpacker, or just want the ability to wonder high meadows, without breaking your back over ridges that lay in the Western Part of the State, then this is the trail for you. It is great for packing in, establishing a basecamp and roaming. I will definatly head back again towards the close of the season to fully explore this area. Mountain Wanderer, Jorj Aldair