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After seeing friends' photos from an overnight trip up Sahale Arm via Cascade Pass several years ago—even before we began hiking seriously—the trip has sat almost constantly atop our queue, waiting for the perfect window of time and weather to savor the experience.

This wouldn't be that.

But it wasn't half-bad, either.

After reading that the Cascade River Road would close September 1st and remain closed through much of October, I set aside the hope that this would be the year that we'd backpack up Sahale Arm and spend the night under starry skies and, instead, settled for a dayhike up to Cascade Pass, or perhaps a bit beyond. If all I'd read was to be believed—i.e., that I'd run out of superlatives before reaching the pass—we'd be returning for that idealized evening on the Arm, anyway.

Knowing that the trail would be busy no matter what the time, and doing our best to get all of six hours of sleep after watching [a movie] the night before, we left West Seattle at 06:20. After stopping in Marblemount in a thwarted attempt at a warm breakfast sandwich, we headed up the 23-mile Cascade River Road stuffing a quarter-pound of Costco muffin into each of our mouths. Signs along the way warn that the road is primitive, but it's actually an excellent road, with glimpses up and across the valley all along the way. At 09:10, just less than three hours after leaving home, we pulled into a large, mostly-full parking lot. I'd expected views at the parking lot, but I was impressed nevertheless by the dominating face of Johannesburg Mountain, even as seen through our cracked windshield. Its upper reaches were shrouded in clouds.

Once booted up, we left the trailhead (3600') behind us and set ourselves a speedy pace, putting space between us and a party of ~ten that seemed like it was almost ready to hit the trail as well. The trail ascends numerous—but gentle—switchbacks, and though we heard voices below us from time-to-time, we were treated to a surprising quietness as we climbed. Our pace stayed quick, slowing only as we glanced over our shoulders down the Cascade River valley (which came into view about forty minutes into the hike) or across to Johannesburg again.

Around 10:30, the trail—no longer switchbacking, now traversing—crosses a large rockfield; pika sounds abound. Cascade Pass is in sight.

As we rose to the pass, so too did the voices of those who had stopped at the pass: admirers of the Stehekin Valley and the peaks on either side, climbers off to Eldorado, et al., and those content to take a seat on rock benches and eat their early lunches. We sat down briefly among the eight—nine—ten there and added our quiet voices to the chorus. It was 10:55; it had taken us just over an hour-and-a-half to make it the ~3.7 miles and 1800' of gain to the pass (5400').

Though the views were nice when we reached the pass, in all honesty, the views toward the direction we'd come from (West) were better than those over the pass (East). Since we'd made such good time, we set off again, toward Sahale Arm, intending to climb only as far as we felt like it, hoping to see Sahale Peak itself and Doubtful Lake below it.

The climb from Cascade Pass to Sahale Arm is by far steeper than the trail beforehand, but not overly difficult. It is, however, quite rocky, and after ~thirty minutes and an encounter with a relaxed marmot, Nicole decided to turn around and wait for me at the pass. Her ankle had been bothering her since the weekend before, when we'd backpacked up to and down from Gothic Basin. Giving the ankle a rest was probably a good idea, as we have a lot of hiking to do in the next few weeks...

I continued up alone, reaching the ridge crest (6200') and an intersection with a trail down to Doubtful Lake at 11:35. Here, Sahale Peak and its Arm are visible, though the summit itself remained hidden in the clouds. I continued several steps further. Then the beautiful blue Doubtful Lake appeared below me. I took pictures for a few minutes, turning often to look up the Arm, trying to see just where we'll camp when we do do this as a backpack...

I met Nicole back at the pass at 12:10. She'd been eating Combos, watching marmots, and layering up. There was a cold wind at the pass. I added a layer and we headed down at 12:20, stopping briefly to take someone's photo, and again to take off a layer once out of the wind.

We coasted down the semi-busy trail, coming to a halt finally in the parking lot at 13:45 to use the restroom and take off our boots. Shortly thereafter, we were off. A fine day, aside from the parking lot known as southbound I-5.

Indeed, this is a wonderful hike with beauty straightaway. I can see why it is one of the most popular trails in Washington, and I'm looking forward to spending the night up Sahale Arm, hopefully on a quiet, fall, non-weekend day.

Stats: ~9 miles round-trip from the trailhead (3600') to Sahale Arm (6200') and back—it's ~7.2 round-trip to Cascade Pass. There's 1800' of elevation gain en route to the pass, and another ~800' up to my turnaround point, for a total gain/loss of 2600'—a few hundred feet less for Nicole. It took us 1:35 to make the pass, it took me 1:10 to climb up the Arm and back, and it took us 1:25 to descend from Cascade Pass to the parking lot. Hike time: 3:00 round-trip to the pass, 4:25 total.

We completed a 4-day trip over Cascade Pass and down the Stehekin River to High Bridge.

Highlights and special considerations:

-Biting black flies were the worst I have ever seen! Densities of these flies decreased the further east we hiked.
-Beautiful scenery of course, at Cascade Pass, and all the way down to Cottonwood Camp in the Stehekin Valley. The section of trail east of Pelton Basin to Cottonwood was VERY brushy in places. Watch your step.
-Saw two black bears (one near Park Creek and the other, several miles north of High Bridge)

Plenty of solitude once you head east from Cascade Pass. Enjoy!

Drove down Cascade River Road to MP 20, where it is gated. Decided to walk the last three miles before the Cascade Pass trailhead, to see what condition the trail is in. As it turns out, there is still alot of snow on Cascade River Road, especially once you approach MP 22. I ended up turning around a little before reaching the trailhead of Cascade Pass. The snow was getting deeper, plus I had to climb over several avalanche blowdowns on the road. It was nice to see that the area was beginning to look like spring. The trees and bushes in the lower meadows were getting their leaves.

I spotted a large black bear in one of the meadows. He appeared to be searching for whatever edible food he could find, such as grass, leaves, etc. Overall, a nice spring-time trip to the North Cascades National Park.