Two perfect weather days on a weekend was too good to pass up, so i packed my bag and extra film for a weekend marathon to Image Lake. I left the trailhead and a swarm of flies at 10am. The Suiattle trail is in good shape, although the brush is trying hard to cover parts of the first few miles. There are several small run-off creeks that must be crossed between miles 3-5. After the bridge at 6.5 miles the trail gets progressively dryer; make sure you get water early since the last few miles are dry. The views of Glacier Peak get better and better as you head up the switchbacks that start at 9.5 miles. The switchbacks are gentle sloped and back- packer friendly. I reached the top of the ridge at about 6:30 and chatted with the summer ranger who's stationed with his wife at the lookout tower. I was quite surprised to find only two other parties camped at the hiker's camp just beyond the lake. A photographer had been camped there all week looking for the perfect shot; i got mine in one day--at sunset and then a matching set at sunrise! One word of caution: the bugs are out big time, and there is NO escape. Even the mosquitos were feasting on my Deet-soaked limbs! Not wanting to hike in the heat of the day, after exploring the ridge a bit i made record time back to the trailhead. Only passed one hiker on the way back. The two day total of 34 miles and about 5,000 feet definitely had my feet starting to feel like hamburger; i reccomend more time to enjoy this trip. I met two groups on their way to Stehekin for a week-long outing; this sounded like a good plan. Looks like more warm sunny weather is in store for the mountains--get out and enjoy while you can!

We did 11 miles from 12 noon to 5PM The trail was in great shape and had very few people on it. The fairy slippers (Calypso Bulbosa) were in bloom, as were the wild ginger. It rained overnight but the return to the parking lot was dry. On the return 11 miles we saw no other hikers! This is a well maintained lowland river hike. Very Nice!

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!

I decided to give the snow a break and let it melt a little, so this week I headed north of Glacier Peak to do some distance up the Suiattle River valley. Note: highway 530 east of Arlington is being resurfaced, so expect delays if heading out toward Darrington during the week. After leaving late at 8:30am, busy traffic, and road construction heading toward Darrington, we still made the trailhead at the end of FS #26 in three hours at 11:30am. The Suiattle River was boiling at a milky froth! The sound would accompany the entire day – always a fun hike when one can find this. The trail is as smooth, level, and fast hiking as almost any trail in existence. Work to log the trail out has been completed to the PCT about 12 miles in. There are many places to cross water over the trail from the numerous creeks that are coming off the northern ridge to the valley, and many of these are in the form of delightful waterfalls nearly on top of the trail! About four miles up the trail, I managed to pull a dumb maneuver and slip trying to get fancy crossing a creek where it was 8’ wide instead of just walking the 25’ wide section of trail that was flowing water from the creek. PLOP! Faster than I can recall what happened, my boots were filled with water. I was in a semi-sitting position in the creek. At that point it was VERY easy to just walk across the creek not caring if I got wet, as I was as wet as I could ever get if I just walked through! Of course, the hike back to the trailhead I just went straight through, finding plenty of underwater rocks to keep my boot tops above water. Duh… Two of the waterfalls had me setting up the tripod for shooting photographs, and I found the Canyon Creek crossing to be an excellent 3:00pm lunch stop. Canyon creek, about seven miles in, was a spectacular mix of waterfalls and roaring creek bed to photograph, and I spent the next hour here shooting well over a roll of images. Stunning! It was also about 20 degrees colder here than around the bend on this 80+ degree day, which was refreshing. The new bridge over Canyon Creek is very nice as well – it was replaced last summer. A fast hike back out took me back to the intersection with the Milk Creek Trail. I decided to head up there a ways to check things out and enjoy the spectacular bridge crossing over the Suiattle River. What a sight that was with the river running so madly! Started out for civilization around 7:10pm and was eating excellent Mexican food in Arlington by 8:30pm, followed by a drowsy drive home to finish off a very good day. About 14.5 miles in all, never got above 2660’ elevation all day, and the bugs were virtually non-existent! Will be heading back in a few more weeks to go up Milk Creek Trail to the PCT and beyond.