Northwest Outdoors
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Chelan Lakeshore Trail
I took a good friend for her first backpacking trip on one of the premier spring hikes in the Pacific Northwest: the Lakeshore Trail. Just reaching the trail involves driving about four hours from Seattle, and then catching a ferry, the Lady of the Lake, which drops you off at Prince Creek, also known as “the middle of nowhere.” There begins the hike to Stehekin, WA, a small town of 85 people (10 of whom have phones).
Docks along the lake, seen from the ferry
Because it was Memorial Day weekend, got off the boat with 100 of our new best friends. So we waited with countless butterflies at the landing for the crowd to disappear on the trail, watched the boat get smaller and smaller until it vanished around a bend in the lake, and felt the sense of being alone in a vast wilderness come over us.
The Lady of the Lake
We hit the trail, going slowly at first to let some distance develop between us and the masses. Soon we felt we had the entire lake to ourselves, and rarely did we see anything that challenged our happy illusion.
Immediately the trail starts ascending the hillside, and enters a meadow. From the ferry the mountains here look brown and dead, seem to be made up of exposed dirt and rock, with a few trees scattered here and there. But from up close, they’re teeming with life and color.
Colorful grasses decorating the meadow
Of course as the trail rose up above the lake, it offered superb views. Ironically we spent very little time near the shore of the lake, only visiting occasionally at camps and in the last few miles approaching Stehekin. Lake View Trail would have been a better name for this hike. The views were stunning!
Prince Creek emptying into Lake Chelan
As we hiked, we found out that this transition zone between the mountains and desert was a giant wildflower garden. We saw millions of lupines, entire hillsides turned blue and purple, again and again for miles.
Fields of lupines
Of course lupines weren’t the only flowers we saw. The trail offered great variety: open, sun-blessed meadows, lush ravines, burn zones with ghost trees, ponderosa pine forests as we approached Stehekin. Wet zones were full of Columbia tiger lilies and columbine, lupines preferred drier pastures, paintbrush were their allies, balsamroot, the remains of played out glacier lilies and too many others to count.
Lupines and paintbrush
And then, after 17 miles of Lakeshore Trail, we arrived in Stehekin. We celebrated with a hot meal in the restaurant, and marveled at iced tea after filtering water from creeks for the past couple days. We camped for the night, and spent most of the next day kayaking.
Exploring the waters and the far shore
And, eventually, it was time to catch the ferry back to civilization. As we boarded, we saw the fast option.
NW Lake Chelan, with a sea-plane
The ferry takes several hours to cross the lake, while Chelan Seaplanes makes the journey in half an hour. For context, it took us two days on foot. Of course, the travel time reinforces the sense of remote isolation in a big wilderness. The ride is lovely early in the season when the mountaintops still have snow on them.
Big peaks among the Entiat Ranges looming over Lake Chelan
Wild Waters
Mason Lake in Early Winter
Ira Spring was a revered photographer, mountaineer, and conservationist who founded the Washington Trails Association, supplied photos for the 100 Hikes guide books, and helped establish North Cascades National Park, protected as a wilderness. Here is a trip report from an early winter hike on the Ira Spring trail to Mason Lake.
Snoqualmie Valley has the nearest mountain wilderness for Seattle residents. It sits on the west side of the Cascade Crest, meaning it’s wet and lush; timbered slopes rise up on either side of the river. The Mason Lake trail starts following an old logging road which quickly peters out into a narrow trail, ascends through the forest passing a waterfall (the last source for two miles!), then switchbacks through a broad, steep meadow. The views down the valley, and of Rainier towering over the surrounding peaks, are fantastic on a clear day. Through the spring and summer the meadow fills with lupine and Indian paintbrush, but this was a winter hike, the wildflowers were long gone, their remains covered with a dusting of snow.
The trail ascends the north wall of the Snoqualmie Valley, eventually reaching the crest of the ridge and entering the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.
Talus slope under a dusting of snow
A side trail leads to the summit of nearby Bandera Mountain, but this hike instead goes to Mason Lake, which involves a short descent down the north side of the ridge, back into the forest.
Dense west-side forest and snowy boulders
Eventually the trail crosses a small and slightly braided stream – water once again! – and comes out to an opening in the forest, Mason Lake.
Peninsula on Mason Lake
Snowy Logs rising out of Mason Lake
The trail meanders along the north shore of the lake, then splits once again, one branch heading east, and the other, which we followed, heading north toward Mount Defiance’s peak. Our branch rises up above Lake Kullakulla, which is not visible from the trail. The forest is just too thick.
Goals for 2014
I have this hanging on my wall at home, with hand-drawn boxes to check things off after I achieve them. I’ve been doing this for a few years now.
“The list” is in my living room, reminding me to get up and go have fun when I start to feel lazy. Instead of falling into the doldrums and doing the same favorite hikes again and again, this pushes me to go out and enjoy new experiences. Maybe more importantly, as the year goes by and the page fills with checks, it makes me feel like I’ve been making good use of my time; it’s the cure to worries about squandered youth.
I read something Brendan Leonard wrote, called Make Plans, not Resolutions, and this is my way of doing that.
So what are my plans? 
- Kayak on Diablo Lake
- Kayak camp on Ross or Diablo Lake
- Bike the North Cascades Highway
- Bike the Columbia River Gorge
- Bike the Skagit Tulip Flats
- Continue to climb
- Climb more: alpine, multi-pitch, lead
- Backpack a Railroad Grade / Park Butte loop
- Backpack to Stehekin (from Easy Pass? Spider Meadow?)
- Backpack to Sahale Glacier Camp with the nice camera
- Climb Sahale Peak
- Get into the Picket Range (Terror Basin? Grand traverse?)
- Hike in Mount Adams country
- Explore the Goat Rocks
- Play on glaciers
- Hang out with mountain goats
- Sleep outdoors 45+ nights
The last few are “summary goals,” if I do everything else on the list, I won’t be able to help achieving them. This leaves out a few things I know I’ll do anyway, like hike and scramble ridges in the Teanaway, which is how the goats will find me.
Most people who enjoy this blog like the photos, and I don’t want to let you down. Here are a handful of photos relating to the things I plan to do this year.
Hannegan Peak, Mount Baker country, one way into the Picket Range
A mountain goat in the Teanaway
Cycling the North Cascades Highway at Diablo Lake
Diablo Lake shows up three times on my wish list, it’s a glacial lake in the heart of the North Cascades. Later in the season the water slowly turns a beautiful shade of turquoise because of the glacier flower. This was from a very early spring ride.
The view from Sahale Glacier Camp at sunset
Sahale Camp sits at the edge of the glacier, and is the highest camp in North Cascades National Park. It looks down on majestic peaks and glaciers, which seemed to radiate in the dark night. This was an amazing thing to see, paid for by a brutal hike. It’s something I need to photograph. Climbing the peak is something I’ve wanted to do for a couple years. Climbing in general may seem like a soft-ball goal; sometimes keeping momentum going is important.
Artist Point Snowshoe
Sunny weather + low avalanche risk = Mount Baker!
My good friend Jack and I got on the road before dawn yesterday, and drove to the Heather Meadows ski area. We stepped out of the car into the blistering cold, strapped snowshoes to our feet, and went exploring. As we hiked, the cloud cover broke up, revealing a cobalt blue sky and the warm sun. A perfect day in a winter wonderland, under the two ice giants Kulshan and Shuksan.
We hiked up steep slopes to Artist Point, powder crunching under our heavy snowshoes, looking up nervously at the slopes above us. There was no question the snow was coming down one day, but we decided it wouldn’t slide today, and continued up the trail. Still, it felt sketchy. At the top we had a brief celebration, then headed back down, arriving at the car just before sunset, and being treated to a brilliant display of alpineglow as we left.
Leaving the Heather Meadows ski area
Table Mountain and the Heather Meadows Visitor Center, closed for the winter
Mount Shuksan
The North Cascades were our backdrop
Mount Shuksan
Mount Baker (aka Kulshan)
Although snow was blowing off the slopes of Baker like Everest, we experienced a perfectly windless day.
Jack taking in the view from the top
Alpineglow on Mount Shuksan
Shuksan stands high enough above sea level to catch the last rays of daylight, which have traveled through more sky than normal, removing all of the blue from the light, leaving only the red hues.
Franklin Falls (and the change of seasons)
I hiked to Franklin Falls with a friend recently; we left the trail and enjoyed some good, old fashioned creek-scrambling. This is a short and easy hike if you stick to the trail, good to take family on or introduce non-hikers to the trail, and not one I’d normally write about here. People come from the desert east of the Cascades to escape the sun, to see lush old growth cedars and Douglas-firs, and water. Normally, I prefer heading east to escape the trees and enjoy some sun.
We parked at the trailhead, which won’t be possible in a month. Cold rain poured down all around us as we stepped out of the car and put on our packs. As the day wore on the rain turned to snow, and slowly began to gather on the evergreen boughs. We hiked along the knife edge of the change of the seasons from winter to fall.
South Fork, Snoqualmie River
The trail starts at a dirt parking lot on a spur forest service road, and immediately enters the woods next to the river. We were happy to be able to cut right to the chase; when the winter storms come, the road will only be plowed to the last house, and the last mile and a half of the approach will require snowshoes. It won’t be long now.
December (2012) snow falling on the river
This photo, from a snowshoe trip last winter, shows the river from one of the booth paths leading from the trail to the rocky shore.
Mount Saint Helens
My friend and I climbed Saint Helens a month ago. We had bought our permits in February, hoped against hope that the weather would hold out, and began to despair as the government shut down and closed the national parks. Mt St Helens is a “national volcanic monument,” and while there was some disagreement as to its status (Washington Trails Association announced that the mountain was closed), we were able to collect our permits, drive to the trailhead, and head up. In fact, it wound up being a sunny day, and very crowded, in part because permits were not being enforced.
We camped at Climbers’ Bivouac and set out on the trail just as dawn broke.
Fading stars and morning light on the mountain
The trail gains altitude for two miles, and ends abruptly at 4,800 feet, where the trees stop growing.
The end of the trail; hiking stops and climbing begins here
Mount Adams stands in the distance
See the wooden post toward the bottom of the picture, just left of center? These begin at the trail’s end; you follow them up an endless gully until you attain Monitor Ridge. These are the Forest Service’s way of preventing climbers from getting lost.
Gully leading to Monitor Ridge
We met Saint Helens on October 5th, which turned out to be a warm, sunny autumn day. So much so that I got a slight burn. But we saw patches of snow here and there in the woods, and it only got deeper through the ascent.
The views were spectacular, both at the trailhead, and as the climbing route broke away from the timbered slopes. My friend and I live in Seattle, and spend much of our time in the central and northern Cascades, so we were treated to see unfamiliar peaks. My friend commented that he had never seen Rainier from this angle before, and didn’t believe me when I told him I thought it was Adams. We looked out to Mounts Hood and Jefferson in Oregon.
Hood from the snowy flanks of Saint Helens
Washington’s southern Cascades feel like a different range; longer but lower ridges, big lakes, and individual mountains piercing the sky. The North Cascades is a sea of peaks, the south Cascades are mountains that fight their own battles without allies.
I regret to say that I didn’t reach the summit. We had made a few mistakes, which caught up with me. I skipped dinner in response to delays from Friday’s awful traffic. I skipped breakfast, too; we woke up to find frost all around us, and got moving partly to stay warm. I carried too much weight (camera, more water than I needed, a lot of extra layers). Eventually I began to run out to steam and slow down. The days are short and we agreed it was vital to get off the upper portion of the mountain before dark. So, at about the 7,000 foot level, I told my friend to go on without me. It was still a great time, and I’ll make sure not to repeat these errors on my next climb.
Now, on to camp. As I said, we spent the night at Climbers’ Bivouac to get an early start; this is a little clearing in the woods at the base of the mountain. The clearing affords a view of the heavens above.
Clouds lit up by Portland’s and Vancouver’s light
Driving up the lower section of the mountain in the dark, toward camp, we passed another clearing and saw Portland sprawled out below us. It was a brightly lit city in the dark. Its light reflected orange in the low clouds that hung around the mountain, and made for wonderful night photos.
The Milky Way
Golden Larches at Blue Lake
Larches are like the holy grail to northwestern hikers; these trees drop their needles in the fall and grow them back in June. Before they come down, the needles turn a brilliant shade of golden yellow. Sadly, the display only lasts about a week.
Alpine Larches near Washington Pass
I camped at Diablo Lake on Saturday to see the larches, then got up the next morning and set out for Washington Pass. Blue Lake’s trailhead is just before the pass, a small flat spot in the woods beneath Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires. The trail goes up, up, and away (but not very steeply) through a dense forest, eventually coming into a meadow-like area where the trees are more sparse, but never really vanish. As the trees thin out, the views become more and more dramatic.
Alpine Larches near Washington Pass
You may have noticed the snow in these pictures; there’s a reason two of the peaks in these photos are called Early Winters Spires. Yellow larch needles and snow tend to come at about the same time.
Back-lit needles shimmering in the autumn sun
The trail ends at the lake, but a better view is waiting at the top of a little knoll beside the water.
Blue Lake is beginning to freeze over
Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires
It’s no wonder I love the North Cascades. 🙂
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May Creek Boat Camp, Ross Lake
I tried something new (to me). My plan was to rent a kayak and paddle in to Cougar Island with my tent and sleeping bag, but when I applied for my permit I learned I’d have to share the island with a couple who was already camping there. The ranger told me “the most popular site on Ross Lake is available. It has a waterfall, and room for one.” So I found myself at May Creek Boat Camp, and because it’s farther than I planned to go, I took the water taxi.
The boat dropped me off early Thursday morning, and we arranged for it to pick me up on Saturday. As the boat left, the feeling of being alone in an immense wilderness came over me, it was a joy.
Ross Lake is a 20 mile long finger lake surrounded by big mountains, greenish blue with silt from melted glaciers. At one end is the Ross Lake Resort; this is where you can rent kayaks and canoes, and catch the water taxi. The resort it a mile from the road, a short hike that goes steeply down hill.
Hiking to the Ross Lake Resort
On the way down I ran into two Border Patrol agents, one of them with a machine gun draped over his chest. This, also, is something I’d never encountered before. They said they had been doing boat patrols, since Ross Lake extends into Canada, about 15 miles away.
At the resort, I loaded my backpack into a small boat, and we left for May Creek Camp.
Leaving Ross Lake Resort
In the background is the Ross Lake Dam and Colonial Peak behind it.
Into the Wild
Alone in camp for the next three days
First order of business: find this waterfall. Turns out it’s best viewed from a boat, it sits at the bottom of a ravine. The ground is steep and wet. I got a glimpse from above and some pictures that didn’t turn out well.
May Creek outlet to Ross Lake
The bright, vibrant greenish blue color of the water is true to life, believe it or not. The water is startlingly clear, giving a view 20+ feet below of the submerged cliffs and tree trunks. In the bottom right corner is a hint of the waterfall that graced my camp.
The first night was clear and cold, with a full moon rising from the south east.
Stargazing in camp
The next day I hiked the East Bank Trail to Devil’s Creek and then a bit south of my camp on the way back. As the day wore on, clouds came in over the lake, growing darker. I gathered fuel for the fire that would keep me warm, mostly drift wood. Eventually the rain came and I took shelter in my camp. All night it stormed, but the sun was out the next day, mixing with the clouds, letting me dry my tent’s rain fly.
Volatile weather after the storm
Eventually the boat came to pick me up, right on schedule. We went back to the edge of the lake, and I hiked out to the trailhead where my car and a clean set of clothes were waiting for me.
A bridge over a small creek on the Ross Lake Resort Trail
Cascade Pass to Stehekin
Stehekin, WA, is a wilderness-edge town in the North Cascades, on the shore of Lake Chelan. It’s notoriously difficult to get to: foot, boat, and plane are the only ways in and out. I chose to hike in for my first visit, along my favorite trail.
The ancient Cascade Pass trail offers a tour of all different types of scenery available in the Northwest mountains. It begins in a dense wet-side forest, which slowly opens to a meadow, then the trail crosses the Cascade Crest and the scenery changes abruptly. All of a sudden the peaks are more bare, the woods become more spacious and less dense, the meadows seem more full of life. The trail winds down talus slopes into a narrow river valley, coming into an open, airy, park-like forest, passing through burn scars, past rocky outcroppings, and eventually coming to a 50 mile finger lake. As the trail winds on, the Stehekin River grows from a small creek into a powerful and swift glacial river.
The Cascade River Valley
Looking west from below Cascade Pass.
Eldorado Peak
I spent my first night out in Pelton Basin, a small camp east of the pass. The camp – currently being upgraded to grizzly standards – sits in the end of a grove of trees that reach down into a wet meadow basin. For water, you hike out to the creek running down the center of the broad valley, and come to Pelton Creek, one of the sources of the Stehekin River. I stayed here a year ago and explored the meadow extensively, boulder hopping to keep my feet dry.
Cascades along Pelton Creek
The next morning I packed up and made a side trip to Horseshoe Basin before descending into the Stehekin River Valley. Horseshoe Basin is a gorgeous place, but not an easy one to photograph, and you should see it for yourself.
The many waterfalls of Horseshoe Basin
After visiting the basin, I hiked on to Cottonwood Camp, a lovely and small corner of the wilderness, on the banks of the river, with a view of big peaks. This is where the forest begins to “close in” on the trail. In fact, this is where the Cascade Pass Trail ends, and is replaced by a century old wagon road, so overgrown in places that it’s invisible.
I carried an orange for two days, and ate it on the banks of the Stehekin River outside of camp. It may have been the sweetest thing I’ve ever had to eat.
My plan was to take five or six days to hike, but by this point my sleeping schedule had come pretty well in sync with the sun. The next morning I was on the trail by 8 am, and reached the next camp on my permit by 10 am. I wanted to continue hiking, although I might have built camp and explored the park-like surroundings. Instead, this became a 15 mile day, which is further than it sounds with a heavy pack that includes 10 pounds of camera gear.
For a long while, the hike becomes a river walk; the river isn’t always in sight, but it’s almost always within earshot.
Glacier Flour in the Stehekin River
After the long third day, and after reaching Stehekin, my legs were a little stiff. I stayed in the Lodge at Stehekin that night, which let me soak them (my legs) in the cold lake water, and then in a hot bath. It also let me wash up, although the town has showers for campers and thru-hikers.
The Lodge at Stehekin, Lake Chelan in the background
Stehekin has volatile weather, and clouds make for great sunsets, although they aren’t so good for stargazing. For a while, I thought the sky might be on fire. I fell into a peaceful sleep, hoping for a clear night before I had to leave. I didn’t have to wait long for it.
Sunset over the ferry dock
The town is a small one, run by the national park service. There’s a hotel, a restaurant, and an NPS information center. All along the lake are small boat docks for people who want to avoid the Lady of the Lake, chairs and benches set up for the public, and open views of the water and the mountains beyond. The next night I wandered around these places, watching the night sky as the moon came up.
The Ferry Terminal
Full moon over Stehekin
Can you spot the Big Dipper?
A bright day followed a cool night. While I was there I spent a day kayaking, another day on a bike exploring the old wagon roads, and managed to enjoy a cold swim.
A back float in Lake Chelan
Ultimately, I took the Lady of the Lake (ferry) to the city of Chelan, and met a friend who brought me back to the Cascade Pass trailhead, so that I could get home.
Sourdough Gap and Crystal Lake, Winter Trail
This follows on the heels of my last post; the Sourdough Gap trail is just as beautiful and looks more rugged during a winter storm.
Last year, my friend Mary wanted to go hiking, and had never been to Mount Rainier, so we chose the Sourdough Gap section of the Pacific Crest Trail. I’d done this earlier with mutual friends ours and been impressed, and we both knew the road to Chinook Pass would close any day, so we wanted to get while the getting was good.
Sheep Lake
There was no swimming to be had this day. But it was still early in the season (*) and there were inches of snow, not feet. More snow fell all around us as we hiked, landing silently in the water and melting as it joined Sheep Lake. Above is a photo of the outflow, where hikers and backpackers collect water to purify.
Sheep Lake from Sourdough Gap
We headed upward, to the Sourdough Gap – a small notch in the ridge – and enjoyed the winter wonderland view as a cloud blew in and enveloped us. When we reached the pass we wanted photos, but decided not to linger after taking them. The wind was just too cold. But the view!
Beyond the pass the wind calmed down a bit, and we found ourselves in a wide glacier-carved valley. The storm hadn’t quite reached its northern side yet.
Panorama looking north from Sourdough Gap
The storm moving north
Winter is a black-and-white time in the PNW. Colorful things are hidden beneath the snow, and the cloud cover is so thick the meager daylight that makes it to the ground has no hue or direction. Our view from the pass was a slight exception, with a patch of blue struggling for a foothold in the sky. It didn’t last long.
The meadows on the other side were covered in snow, but it was shallow enough for some plants to press through. Trails stood out visibly from their surroundings. We followed the PCT down, into Mount Rainier National Park, to Crystal Lake. We noticed camps along its shores and wondered what they must be like in the summer.
Crystal Lake from above
Eventually we decided to turn back. Daylight is in short supply in the winter, and the road was precarious enough to begin with.
Crystal Lake
* NOTE: I usually think of seasons according to the weather, not the calendar. This hike was October 20th, 2012, Halloween was approaching, and by all rights it was autumn and not winter. Trudging through the snow and not lingering at the pass because of the bitterly cold wind made it winter in my book.
Northwest Outdoors 