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.
