Pilot Ridge, Blue Lake High & North Fork Sauk River — Friday, Jul. 22, 2005

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Clockwise, no need to carry much water up the switchbacks. Good streams flowing above timberline both before and after you reach the PCT junction. Good water near White Pass (streams coming off White Mtn). Water at Indian Head Peak, Indian Pass. The 2 good streams draining the east basin of Kodak Pk. are the last water until Blue Lake (there may have been some at Dishpan Gap, not sure). Counterclockwise, there are exactly 2 streams crossing the trail as it switchbacks up to Pilot Ridge (not counting 2 wet muddy spots). The second is near the top of the switchbacks and is your last water until Blue Lake, although there are snow patches below Johnson Mtn. Pilot Ridge is quite dry. Blue Lake: not a good place to build fires, OK? It's stripped pretty bare. Not a good place to leave fish guts and 2 lbs. of once-perfectly-edible trout steaks in the lake right at camp, nor elsewhere (I am not making this up). If you want to attract large wildlife to the camp area for future visitors to enjoy, try frying up a pound of bacon and scattering it liberally about; that might work even better. If you do the Blue Lake High route, the 6500' summit NE of the pass is worth a careful visit on tiptoe. Don't so much as overturn a stone; it isn't trashed by careless climbers' feet like popular summit areas. Great view. Or just leave it alone and enjoy the similar view from Johnson Mtn. Met a fellow on the PCT who crossed the Suiattle River; apparently there are log crossings to be found near the washed-out bridge. The logjam crossing at the N Fork Sauk might be interesting when it's wet and dark.