Enchantment Lakes

I believe this was my first trip to The Enchantments in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area.  It is truly a glorious area deserving of all the protection we can provide.  My high school friend, Bill Chaffin, and I tagged along with a group of high school students being led by our former biology teachers, Bill Brockman and Coleman Leuthy.

The trip was the last of September/first of October.  The Enchantments being a high elevation area (~7,000 feet), often receives a dusting of snow with the first Autumn storms as it did for us.  Words hardly describe the delightful scenery of pristine snow over a landscape of granite boulders dotted with golden alpine larch trees all set against a stunningly blue sky.

We took the very common approach of ascending Snow Creek to Nada Lake the first day then hiking the remaining distance to the lower basin in The Enchantments the next day.  I believe we camped the remaining two or three nights of our trip at either Lake Viviane or Leprechaun Lake.  The photo at left is looking south towards McClellan Peak with  Lake Viviane and Leprechaun Lake at the bottom.

On our day to explore the upper basin, we walked up the gentle north slope of Little Annapurna (peak in center of photo) at right.

Probably the most dramatic and most photographed peak in the area is Prusik Peak, the westernmost peak on the long Temple Ridge.

The photo below is Prusik Peak taken from near Gnome Tarn west of Lake Viviane.  The right photo shows Prusik Peak with the rest of Temple Ridge to its right (east) and is taken from near Sprite Lake.

In later years I made more trips to The Enchantments but this first trip and its picture perfect conditions always stood out in my memories.

Goat Rocks Wilderness Area

This was a 5 or 6 day hiking trip from White Pass on US12 through the Goat Rocks Wilderness Area and to Walupt Lake.  Joining me were high school friends, Paul Arons and Martin Hansen.  Since it was a one-way trip, we got a drop off from my mother and a pickup by Paul’s folks (I think, anyway).  The weather was lovely, sunny but not too hot as the days were lengthening and Fall was in the air.

What is nice about this route is that you start at a reasonably high elevation (~4400 feet @ White Pass) and stay high until you drop down towards Walupt Lake.  My recollection is that the high point (just shy of 7,200 feet) of the Washington portion of the Pacific Crest Trail is in Goat Rocks as you cross the north ridge coming off Old Snowy Mountain.

Another nice thing about the route are its wonderful views of three major Cascade volcanoes, Rainier. Adams and St. Helens.

Mt. Rainier is northwest;  >>

<< Mt. Adams is almost due south;

And, Mt St Helens (pre-eruption) is southwest.

1971 must have been a heavy snow year as I remember that Goat Lake (a 3-mile side trip NNW from Snowgrass Flats) still had lots of snow on it despite it being just after Labor Day. 

I also remember the abundant ripe blueberries growing along Nannie Ridge as we descended toward Walupt Lake.

1971 – Hannegan Pass Trailhead to Diablo Dam via Copper Ridge

I believe the images that include me as a subject were duplicate slides provided by the Hansen’s.

This was a trip I was invited on by my high school friend, Martin Hansen. Along with another friend, Bruce Edwards, we were accompanying Martin, his father John, Martin’s sister Theresa and two of Theresa’s friends (names not remembered) on a 59-mile hike from Hannegan Pass Trailhead to the community of Diablo at the base of the Diablo dam on the Skagit River. I don’t remember the precise dates of the trip but based on when my slides were processed (August 1971), I’d say late July or early August. We did have a few snow-covered sections and significant water running in the streams, so it wasn’t late in the season.

Also, I don’t remember how we got to/from the trailheads. My guess is that we might have all piled into one or both Hansen’s Chevy Suburbans and that either Martin’s brother Tom or mother did the driving for the vehicle shuttle. While I know the route we hiked, I am less sure of the campsites we used. Nevertheless, I’ve made some educated guesses.

Some of the things I do remember were: 1) I had a great time; 2) it was beautiful country; 3) the trip was well planned and executed; 4) I don’t remember any bad feelings or tensions in the group. I do remember that the “guys” (Martin, Bruce & I) thought we should receive slightly larger meal portions (the food was communal) than the “girls” (Theresa and her two friends), seeing as how we were carrying more of the group gear than they were.

From trailhead for Hannegan Pass, the route goes first to Hannegan Pass (~4-1/4 miles) then a mile further to the trail junction with the Copper Ridge trail. The trail bounces along Copper Ridge for about 6 miles before dropping into the Copper Lake cirque. This was our first (?) camp, a very long day.

The route continued for several more miles along the ridge before beginning a long drop to the Chilliwack River. A hand line, using the 120’ of nylon Goldline the group carried (well, mostly Martin, Bruce & I), was put across a steep snow slope that the trail crossed, and steps were cut for safety. At the valley bottom, the Goldline was pulled out again to help in crossing the Chilliwack. We made camp somewhere along the Chilliwack.

From here, the route headed back up to Whatcom Pass which is reached at about mile 26 in the journey. There are views looking up towards Whatcom Peak along the trail. At our Whatcom Pass camp, Mt Challenger is the obvious peak that catches your eye. The Challenger Glacier sweeps across the northern flank of the peak. The rocky cap at the summit stands barely two hundred feet above the upper edges of the glacier.

We now descended the Little Beaver Creek Trail for six miles before ascending 1200’ in two miles to Beaver Pass and entering the Big Beaver Creek drainage. I believe we had a campsite either at the pass or perhaps a bit further down at Luna camp. After about 13 miles of steady downhill, we arrived at Ross Lake and the Big Beaver Camp. With it is the opportunity to swim and clean up in something warmer than a snow melt filled stream.

We closed out our trip with a very long day of hiking from the Big Beaver Camp along the Ross Dam Trail to Ross Dam. We cross Ross Dam, walk the road to the bottom of the dam, then hike the Diablo Dam Trail to the community of Diablo (a Seattle City Light “company” town) at the base of the Diablo Dam.

We finished up our trip down the road in Newhalem (another SCL company town) with a fried chicken dinner that was served to those folks doing the Skagit Tours operated by Seattle City Light at the time. While we hadn’t done the tour, Martin’s father who worked for SCL arranged for us to buy just the dinner.

1971 – NCNP – Thunder Creek to Cascade River

This trip included my high school friends Bill Chaffin and Bruce Edwards and was a “tag-a-long” with another group. Our high school biology teacher, Bill Brockman, was leading a group of high school students as part of an organization, The Student Conservation Association (SCA), that organized conservation work projects in National Parks and other protected areas.  The project they were working on was along the Thunder Creek Trail in the North Cascades National Park.  The “tag-a-long” part was that we (Bill, Bruce and I) weren’t actually going to do any conservation work but simply join them for the fun part of their trip, the hike out after they were finished.

The three of us hiked in from the Colonial Creek Campground and joined the larger group at their work base at the trail junction with Fisher Creek, about 9 miles in.  It was my first hike in the North Cascades and a real “eye opener” in terms of the dramatic relief of the area.  For example, the trailhead is at 1300’ and the nearby Ruby Mountain is 7300’, 6000’ above the valley floor.  The vertical relief was accentuated by the considerable amount of snow on the peaks and in the avalanche paths down the slopes.

The plan was to was to continue south along the Thunder Creek Trail over Park Creek Pass, down Park Creek to the Stehekin River Road, then west towards Cascade Pass where we’d get picked up at the Cascade Pass trailhead at the end of the North Fork Cascade River Road.  The hike from Colonial Creek Campground was 38 miles long and crossed two major passes over the Cascade Crest, which divides the waters that flow west towards Puget Sound or east towards the Columbia River.

After leaving the Fisher Creek camp, our next camp was a little ways north of the 6100’ Park Creek Pass.  I don’t remember the exact site but with the amount of snow remaining on the ground, I am sure it was a couple of miles north of the pass.  The next day was the long slog up the snow slope towards Park Creek Pass.  We camped on the snow covered meadows south of the pass with their outstanding views of Buckner (9100’) and Booker (8100’) mountains.

The following day, descending Park Creek towards the Stehekin River,  included route finding over avalanche debris and following the snow covered trail trail through the forest.  I am not sure whether we camped that night where the Park Creek trail met the Stehekin River Road or pushed the four additional miles to the road end and reached Cottonwood Camp.  In any event, we did eventually stay a night or two in Cottonwood Camp. While there, a bold black bear was so bold as to come through camp and steal a bag with food.

From Cottonwood Camp, we made our way to Cascade Pass.  Along the way, Bruce, Bill & I took a side trail to visit Horseshoe Basin. The meltwater from snow created a dozen cascades from the basin.  When we reached the pass, it was totally covered in snow and the group climbed up to the sunnier slopes of Sahale Arm to find drier ground.  The area where we camped is now totally out of bounds for overnight camping as the ground and vegetation has been damaged by over use (such as by our group).

We spent two nights camped here and took advantage of the extra day to wander up Sahale Arm. The route towards the terminal moraine of Sahale Peak is inviting and its scenery only gets better the higher you go.  It is easy to understand what makes the North Cascades National Park such a treasure.

Our final day was a relatively short 3-1/2 mile descent to the parking lot at the end of Cascade River Road.