North Cascades

Cascade Pass/Sahale Arm/Sahale Glacier

September 15, 2001

Wow. I think I can truely consider this my first true hike into the North Cascades National Park. Yeah, I've been in the park before, yeah, I've hiked in the park before... but I've never seen the likes of what I saw on this day.

I'll just comment briefly on the hike, then let the pictures speak for themselves...

We left Seattle at 6, arrived at the trailhead at 9, started hiking at 9:25, reached the pass at 11, left the pass at 11:40, reached the Glacier campground at 2:15 or so, left at 2:35, reached the pass again at 3:55, left the pass at 4, back at the car at 5:20.

The first 2.5 miles of the trail boasts 35 switchbacks... not too bad really, only 1400 feet, but that's just a lot of stupid switchbacks. The pass is amazing, you trade the amazing mountains you've been looking at for a whole other set of amazing mountains. Then you get high enough and can see beyond all the mountains you've been looking at to see all the mountains behind. On this day we caught views of Baker, Glacier, and about 5 million other mountains, buttes, and peaks I could only begin to identify.

Okay... let the slide show begin...

Can you see where these photos fit together? On the bottom right of the right picture, there's a long skinny snowfield, the parking lot looks directly across the valley at that snowfield... we're pretty high up already.

At the pass, there was a VERY friendly chipmunk (left) and a whole new set of mountains and glaciers to look at! (below)

This next scene doesn't fit together too well this way, but I'm going to make a run at it anyway... starting on the very left, this is Sahale Arm. The trail moves up the arm to the long thin horizontal glacier you can see in the center of the left picture. Along the bottom of the glacier, you can see three humps, two are well defined, the third is to the left of the dominant two. That left-most hump is where the Glacier camp is. Next we move to the center picture. This picture shows the peak and glacier all the way down (trailing towards the lower right) to Doubtful Lake. The creek does quite a few nice long waterfalls and was a pleasant background noise to the upper reaches of the hike. Finally, the picture on the right shows Doubtful Lake. The creek from the glacier comes in from the top left and drains into the lake. Directly above (on the other side of) the island in the lake, you can see a punchbowl created by the force of another waterfall which has since dried up in the summer sun.

From the Glacier Camp 7400', the view of the surrounding mountains is spectacular.

The wildlife was abundant in the scree. There was a group of almost 10 ptarmigans right along the trail... and our presence didn't seem to bother them much. They are extremely well camouflaged and have adorable little fur booties. :)

So that's it. What do you think? Wanna go there now?? I highly recommend it.

Maple Pass, Heather Pass, Lake Ann, and Rainy Lake

September 7, 2002

Yes, this was the second Lake Ann in as many weeks... albeit a different Lake Ann.

This time we ventured back to the true North Cascades. I picked the hike, but in doing so didn't realize how far we had to drive and how much further this was than any other day hike we'd done. Leaving very early and making minimal stops, it took three and a half hours to get there. It was good company and I wasn't driving, so it wasn't too bad. :)

This was to be a nice loop hike, only about 7 miles or so, and with moderate elevation gain. The weather wasn't predicted to be so nice, but we needed to get out. For my hiking buddy, time was of the essence... with only a handful of hikes completed this year, and not much time left... yeah, got it.

The weather was cloudy, but not solid clouds, there were glimpses of hope (=blue sky) on occasion.

On the advice of the hiking bible, we took the counter-clockwise approach to the loop (Lake Ann, Heather Pass, Maple Pass, Rainy Lake). I'm extremely glad we did... I'll talk more about that later. The trail really heads up to Maple Pass, then back around the other side. There are side trails (less than a mile one way) that lead to Lake Ann, Heather Pass, and Rainy Lake. Our first diversion was to Lake Ann. It's a nice little alpine lake set in a very nice bowl and even has its own little island. We only stayed there long enough to take a series of pictures, because there was a cold wind coming off the lake and we still had a long way to go. After a scenic climb above the lake, we reached Heather Pass. Other hikers took the diversion, but not us. Maple Pass was in sight and we wanted to get there and see the other side. (The other side of Heather Pass was completely cloud-filled and there was nothing but whiteness to see.)

At long last (kinda) we reached Maple Pass, or at least what we believe to be Maple Pass. There were differing opinions by other hikers. We perched ourselves on a rock and proceeded to each lunch. We watched the clouds go by, tried to identify all the surrounding peaks as they jumped in and out of clouds, took pictures, and generally dinked around. Oh, yeah... can't forget this... we got SNOWED on!! It wasn't a whole bunch, just flurries really, but still... it's only early September. There was visible fresh snow on certain surrounding peaks and we had read that snow level was 6500 feet (we were at 6700), so I guess it figures... but still it was a surprise.

From there, we thought the trail descended, following the other side of the Lake Ann bowl then over a little ridge to Rainy Lake. If there was a trail that did that... we didn't find it. Turns out the trail actually ascends another couple hundred feet to a ridge, then descends down the Rainy Lake bowl.   The trail down to Rainy Lake, as we had been warned, was extremely steep. It didn't seem that bad until you stopped and turned around and saw the switchbacks you had just come down. It would have been extremely demoralizing to have ascended this way... I'm not sure we would have made it.

At the bottom of that steepness, there is a paved, yes, paved, trail to Rainy Lake. We went out there because I wanted to take pictures, but we didn't spend a bunch of time there. In addition to the paved part, there were also benches... 8 of them... to give a rest to those poor souls who could not make the 1 mile, flat, paved walk to the lake. That's just sad for a lake so far out in the middle of nowhere. There were no bugs, and it was not too hot. It was a nice combination.

At some point along the hike... I think it may have even been back at Lake Ann... I started thinking about a nice warm bowl of chili and how good that would taste... with some cornbread... mmmmmm! We stopped at the Buffalo Restaurant in Marblemount (right next to the caboose ice-cream place), one of their specials was chili and cornbread. It was a nice local place and the chili was good.

I don't even remember what time we finally got home, but needless to say, it was a long day. :)

North Cascades Highway

February 25, 2001

On this day, we were headed up to Squire Creek... a shoulder season favorite. For better or worse, however, snow covered the road, we almost got permanently stuck in Paul's Kia, and we ditched the hike. Instead, and since we were in the area, we decided to head up the North Cascades Highway to see how far we could go--we knew it was still closed, but neither of us had ever been up that way, so off we went. I'm glad we did. It was a beautiful day (would've been GREAT for a hike!), and we enjoyed doing switchbacks in the car and looking at awesome scenery. As an added bonus... there were... guess what?... yep! .... WATERFALLS! Yippee!     Okay... so we started out with scenes like this... it was kind of scary. This is a river bed. This is a river bed by a dam. See the problem? Yep. No water. It better start raining soon!

One thing that I love about the North Cascades (yes, besides the aforementioned natural phenomena)? Signs. Of all the places in the Northwest, the forest service up here has the best sense of humor... see what I mean?

Before we found the dry bed and the signs... we found this little pull-out... it was real peaceful until another car showed up behind and startled us quite well. We had a name for this... how about "The Pull-Out" :)

Last, but certainly not least, my favorites... the new waterfalls we found.

First we ran across John Pierce Falls. The neatest thing about this falls is the ice fall adjacent to the falls. This is the ice falls. The waterfall is actually tucked back in the canyon to the left. Yay, ice!	Another road-side attraction. There was one stretch of the highway that was lined with ice falls... and the highway was covered with freshly made ice-cubes. (Yes, bits of them were falling off.) Paul didn't want me to dawdle too long for fear I might get spit upon.

Next was Gorge Creek Falls. This falls was nice and tall, but pretty far away (the ground is quite a ways down as well). If you turn around 180 you can look at Gorge lake and Gorge dam. It's a nice spot, but I wish I could get closer.	This nice "little" 30-foot fall is only about 20 feet from the bridge over the gorge containing Gorge Creek. In the season of not a lot of water, it sure was good to see it running all over.

Thornton Lake

July 4, 2003

Our plan today was to head up to Fourth of July Pass... for the Fourth of July... but the trail was washed out less than a mile in, so we scrambled for another nearby hike. Between our books and maps, we found Thornton Lake.

The trail was very brushy, but other than that it's a pretty nice trail. As always, the North Cascade scenery was a major motivating factor and we had to do it.

When we finally reached the highest point, I was a bit disappointed that the lake was so far DOWN! Who wants to climb way up only to drop hundreds of feet in the last little bit of a hike... well, sometimes, maybe I'd do it... but not today. It reminded me a bit of Melakwa Lake in that regard (Trail up, Lake down).