Day 1: Phelps Cr TH - Lyman Lake via Spider Gap ~ 12 miles

3:30 wake up in Longview, 5 or so hour drive to the Phelps Cr TH, on the trail by 9:30 am. Road to Trinity is fairly good til the last 2 miles, road from Trinity to Phelps Cr is less good but still passable with a regular car. You can do the road walk either at the beginning or end of your hike. If at all possible, do it first. I did it last, and it is not fun!

Phelps Cr Trail is gorgeous, lightly traveled, excellent tread, tons of water available, no bugs, no snow. Beautiful big trees, peekaboo views through the forest of nearby peaks.

When you hit Spider Meadow you start getting views of surrounding peaks. About midway through the meadow there is a big pile of avalanche snow. I got turned around here, thinking I had already passed Phelps Creek and started looking for the trail to Spider Gap. Don't make my mistake, I wasted maybe an hour of time on the snow, in avalanche fall, bushwacking, etc, which took a physical and mental toll later. For whatever reason I thought there was no official trail from Spider Meadow up to Spider Gap, but that is not true. Just stay on the main trail, eventually you'll hit a signed trail junction at the bottom of the headwall, and you'll turn up slope toward the Gap.

The ascent from the meadow to the Spider Snowfield is steep and hot. Bring lots of water. The snowfield is soft and safe on a warm day like the one I did. Don't need any special equipment but poles might make it easier. It's apparently only a mile but it feels longer.

Spider Gap is spectacular, views for miles, and a good place for lunch. You'll have to swat a few deerflies, though, precursor of things to come.

Heading down now onto the Lyman Glacier is definitely steeper. With warm, soft snow a set of poles is all you'll need, but an axe or maybe crampons would make me feel safer. There's a thread at NWHikers.net with excellent info about how to find your way down the snow and onto a trail. Don't go right too soon are you end up cliffed at an overlook. But don't go right too late (like I did) or you miss the main trail and end up having to scramble down scree for hundreds of feet, which is tiring.

Once you find the trail, it's an easy up and down to Lyman Lake, which is beautiful. Camping sites are pretty mosquito-ey, but right at the lake there were hardly any flies or skeeters and it's got lots of warm, shallow areas perfect for a hot day. Gorgeous views!

There were some camping spots up higher on the ridge between upper and lower Lyman Lakes, which were scenic, breezy, and lonely, but you would have had to have gotten your water from upper Lyman lake or earlier, as there is no water right at those sites. Worth it though, for those who plan ahead.

Day 2: Lyman Lake - Cloudy Pass - Image Lake - Miner's Creek ~ 13 mi

On trail about 8 am. Easy jaunt up to Cloudy Pass with great views but again, lots of bugs. Definitely bring a headnet and spray. I was going to go with just a tarp since we had such great weather, but in the end I brought my 16 oz homemade bug tent too, which I was very grateful for - more for flies than mosquitoes.

The hiker shortcut to Suiattle Pass is snow-free, no trouble, but kind of steep and rocky.

Trail to Image Lake has a few blowdowns, nothing big. There are signs of active bears en route to Image Lake with several stripped trees and tons of scat near the miner's cabin ruins.

Image Lake itself was infested with horseflies. The campsites appear to be located over a ridge from the lake itself with great views of Glacier Peak but none of the Lake. I didn't camp here, instead moving on to Miner's Creek.

Hint: Miner's Creek bridge goes right over a 4 or 5 foot deep pool of water in the creek, exactly right for jumping in to neck depth for a great rinse off and cool off on a hot and dusty day. Water is cold but tolerable.

There aren't a lot of good campsites at Miner's Creek - I only saw one good one. I made do with a so-so spot and I didn't see any others sites.

Day 3: Miner's Creek - Middle Ridge/Sheep Driveway - Buck Creek Pass - High Pass Lookout ~ 12 mi

On the trail at 8 am. From Miner's Creek you're up to Middle Ridge through forest then parkland, again lots of flies and mosquitoes. There is an unmaintained but well-known trail there that you can go up about a mile and get big views of Glacier Peak et al. Worth it. Then down to Small Creek, a beautiful stream, then back up to Buck Creek Pass. This is around 6 mi, pretty easy, I was there before 11 am.

Note the official Buck Creek Pass campsites are down a hundred or two hundred feet in elevation next to a little stream. They have better access to toilets and water, but much inferior views, also cooler at night and less breezy, bad for bugs. Try to get the unofficial site visible from the main trail if you can, the one you pass as you first head down toward the official camping area.

After setting up camp at the unofficial campsite just off the main trail - the one still high enough to see sunset and sunrise on Glacier Peak - I set off for a dayhike to the unnamed pass just short of High Pass, described in Doug Lorain's "Backpacking Washington." It's an easy first couple miles, rounding Liberty Cap with ever-better views of Glacier Peak, etc. After a long 2 miles you hit an unnamed saddle and round the north-facing side of a ridge. Then you start to hit snowfields - about half a dozen in all. The first is too steep to safely pass. You have to scramble briefly down and around, which isn't too bad. The next few are safe to pass, with proper precautions. To be safest you should have an ax. I didn't. I had in-step crampons, but it was warm and the snow was soft. In retrospect I was probably taking a risk. The final snowfield which is literally immediately before the final destination is not passable. However you can scramble sort of back and up and reach the ridgeline, which you can then traverse briefly to the pass for the best views. Whoa!!! Icy Triad Lake, mostly frozen over, tons of snow and ice, glaciers, peaks, Glacier peak visible to the right, etc. This is an awesome and worthwhile short day hike if you can do it safely! Thunderheads were starting to build at 1:30 so I headed quickly back, just in time to cover my bug tent with my tarp as the first (and last) raindrops fell. Note there is no water once you start up Liberty Cap, bring what you need from Buck Creek Pass.

Day 4 - Buck Creek Pass - Trinity - Phelps Cr ~ 12 mi (plus 1 mi in a vehicle)

7:30 am start. Long, long, steady downhill with spectacular views of Buck Creek Valley and many snowy, icy peaks and slopes. The undulating portion of the valley can be wet with dew, swarming with flies, and hot and humid as there are a few avalanche slopes that are exposed. There are some ripe huckleberries here, but the flies keep you from hanging around too much. Saw some inbound hunters on the way down.

Once you get to the road, it's a long 3 miles, maybe 3.25 miles from Trinity parking lot to Phelps Creek TH. As mentioned, try to do the road walk on entry rather than exit. I found this a very painful and not fun part of the hike, would have been better at the beginning. However, you probably need 5 days to do it that way (staying the first night in Spider Meadow after a 10 mile hike in including the road walk), otherwise you end up starting off with a 15 mile plus day, and the last 3-4 miles are descending the Lyman Glacier in late afternoon while you're probably pretty bushed, which doesn't sound that safe to me.

Great hike, would be nicer in 5 days than 4 but rarely is the hiking steep and the trails are all well-graded and easy to travel (obviously excepting the Spider snowfield and Lyman Glacier).

Really spectacular scenery. Maybe flies and skeeters will be doing out shortly with cooler weather coming this week. Huckleberries just coming on. One of the most scenic backpacks I've done! I didn't mention all the flowers, just tons of lupine and many other common Cascade flowers on the parks of Buck Creek Pass, Lady Pass, Cloudy Pass, etc.

Thanks to posters at NWHikers.net for their tips on traversing the snowfields at Spider Gap!

After the boat ride up Lake Chelan to Lucerne and the bus ride up to Holden Village, we hiked up the Railroad Creek trail a few miles to Hart Lake. The trail was in fine shape, and the fishing was pretty good at the inlet near the established camp on the NW side of the Lake. The bugs weren't too bad here, but beware the pesky deer!

On day two we hiked from Hart Lake to Lyman Lake. The trail gets a bit brushy up the Crown Point switchbacks, then patchy snow starts about 1/2 mile before reaching Lyman Lake. The camps at the north end of the lake are partially melted out. The large campsite on the NW corner of the lake, just before the trail starts climbing to Cloudy Pass, is totally melted out. We cross-country camped near the inlet at the south end of the lake. The lake is still too cold for decent fishing, and the only apparent surface feeding activity was in the north part of the lake. The mosquitoes are thick throughout the Lyman Lakes basin, all the way up to Cloudy Pass.

On day three we took a side trip to Upper Lyman Lake and Spider Gap. This area was almost completely snow-covered, but there are some nice patches of ground melted out for camping up there and the lakes/creek are mostly melted. The ascent to Spider Gap was fine without an ice axe once the sun softened the snow.

On day four we headed over Cloudy Pass, then up over Suiattle Pass. We were able to stay roughly on the trail despite plenty of snow. A bit of routefinding was necessary on both passes, especially on protected north-facing slopes above 5500 feet. The mosquitoes let up almost immediately after crossing Cloudy Pass. We dropped down from Suiattle Pass to the Miners Ridge turnoff, and mostly left behind any significant snow at the Miners Creek camp (melted out). We were glad to find the Miners Ridge trail almost completely snow free - what a spectacular stretch of meadows in the mile before dropping into Image Lake! This area really lives up to it reputation! Quite a bit of snow (not steep) is encountered entering the Image Lake basin, but the backpackers camps are totally melted out. The lake was still ringed with snow, and the fishing was no good (still too cold?).

On day five we returned to Suiattle Pass and headed down the South Fork Agnes Creek trail (not the PCT, which stays above the valley floor for several miles). The trail was in pretty good shape, but there are some areas of brush, water, and blowdown when crossing the avalanche chutes upstream of Hemlock Camp. These weren't bad enough to cause any route-finding issues. The fishing was a bit slow on Agnes Creek at Hemlock Camp, as the creek is still pretty high and cold.

On day six we continued down Agnes Creek. The trail was in fine shape and the huckleberries were ripe as we approached 5-mile camp. Plenty of bear activity in the area around and downstream of 5-mile camp. We didn't have any trouble with bears in our camp on Pass Creek, but we encountered a bear near the camp at the West Fork Agnes Creek trail intersection, and another bear just after crossing Pass Creek. We continued to see plenty of tracks and scat all the way to the Agnes Gorge bridge.

My 13-year-old son and I left early on July 26 from Trinity toward Buck Creek Pass. Unlike reports from a year ago, the trail is in wonderful condition. The route through the tree blow-down is all cleared. We ran into a WTA trail crew (thanks volunteers!) at about six miles. We reached the pass (9.6 miles) at about 4 PM. Contrary to the reports that we received from rangers warning us about lots of snow at the pass, there was hardly any to be seen.

Since there were several camps of people already there, we hiked the short, steep mile further down to a small campsite by Small Creek feeling weary after what seemed like a long warm-up day.

The next day's hike of 8.5 miles or so to Suiattle Pass and on to Cloudy Pass was exhilarating with views west to Glacier Peak. Seemed much easier than the day before. We dropped down beyond Cloudy Pass to a campsite area with a view to Lower Lyman Lake below. The camp was in the midst of a marmot village. The marmots were very active and uninhibited by our presence. I am not sure who was more entertained, us or the marmots. The mosquitoes were out in dense swarms. Our lemon eucalyptus oil repellent was only marginally effective.

The next day we had a short hike of about 5.5 miles to Hart Lake. Met both US Forest Service personnel and NW Youth Corps members working on trail maintenance. No wonder the trail is in such great shape! We set up camp in the site on the west end of Hart Lake and enjoyed the afternoon relaxing and swimming. Although the black flies were numerous, they were much less intense than the mosquitoes the night before.

We left early on the fourth day and covered the 4.5 miles gentle walk down to Holden Village, by 11 AM on July 29, just in time for lunch!

Phelps Pass - Cloudy Pass - Suiattle Pass - Buck Creek Pass - Trinity Loop
3 days, bivvies high on Cloudy Pk and below Pass No Pass

WARNING:
HORSE HAZARD on PCT #789 N. of Middle ridge, below treeline. There is a hoof-sized hole 3' deep, on a slope, this one spot only, no warning. I suppose horses look out for such things, but this looks like a real leg-breaker to me. There were some other cavities around roots; I think subsurface water may have undermined the soil. I put a tall thin stick in it with a flag and ask other passersby to mark it more obviously or stick a log in it.

HUNTING SEASON:
High Hunt is Sept. 15-25 2009.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/seasons.htm
After what happened last year, I got a day-glo hunter-orange pile cap and some other red/orange clothing. A hunter I met remarked that he appreciated it. I recommend this; it's not just safety but a courtesy to hunters and it reminds you to think about hunting season (bear season starts Aug 1, I think). I also like to flag the dog with fluorescent survey tape, cut into festive ribbons. My dogs look like foxes in deep sedge. Be aware that hunters are setting up camps a couple days before High Buck season opens. I spoke several; they really seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the area.

PCT SUIATTLE RIVER CROSSING:
Spoke two PCT parties who crossed Suiattle River. No bridge, log crossing. No info on how it would be at high water. Said trail was OK north of Red Pass, some blowdown.

WATER:
The land looks very dry but water was not an issue, streams flowing everywhere. I treated no water and I'll post a followup if I get sick. I try to get snowmelt as high as possible.

NO FIRES AT UPPER LYMAN LAKES:
There's a routered sign on the bridge at Lyman Lake, and I wonder how anybody can get as far as Upper Lyman Lake without learning that fires at 6000' are destructive, but a large party of greenhorns was gathering what little wood was there, including a big log, for a toy fire that I could see far into the night from Cloudy Peak. I wonder how many years their fire pit will be there?
Please don't do this. A fire is the biggest impact you can make/leave, and once you make a fire, it's like being indoors. Yeah, it's a cool place, but don't expect the snout of a glacier to be warm. If you must make a fire, you can burn it to ash and destroy most traces. End of rant. Sorry.

TRAIL CONDITIONS:
Ripe blueberries are an obstacle to progress.

MEMO:
I asked a horseman; he said it's best to move to the downslope side when you meet horses on a slope, just talk to them so they know you're there. My dog doesn't bark but I'd be concerned about spooking a horse on a slope.

NOTE: This route does NOT go over Pass No Pass.
TRINITY MINE: I think "Discovering Washington's Historic Mines", Vol. 2, Northwest Underground Explorations, covers Trinity and the Miner's ridge area; I'm still trying to get that book. You'll find them interesting.
---------------------------

DAY 1 Sat 9/12
4:15 LV Seattle
7:30 hiking up Phelps Ck Rd, was offered a ride immediately (thanks Dilleys).
      Ice axe unnecessary on what's left of Spider Glacier. Soft snow, warm sunny day.
      4-star campsite at snout of Spider Glacier overlooking Phelps Basin.
3:30 LV Phelps Pass
      Carried water from Lyman Lake to Cloudy Pass, but plenty good water flowing from meadows on S side of Cloudy Pk.
      Bivvied high on SW rib of Cloudy, 1-person sand patch, no tent sites above pass. 5-star campsite at Cloudy Pass. Magnificent view from here; if you go to Cloudy Pass, make time to gently stroll high onto Cloudy Pk.

Day 2 Sun 9/13
      Ascended Cloudy Pk. Follow ridge as high as possible, then onto ledges on Rt (E). Some Class 3 scrambling; final summit block is Class 3-4, not corgi-friendly, Gwynnie's pride was hurt.
11:00 LV Cloudy bivouac.
12:40 LV Suiattle Pass.
2:15 LV Miners' Ck.
      HORSES, watch for hoof hole below treeline!
4:00 Middle Ridge. My old map shows Middle Ridge Tr going WNW down the ridge, and it looked like a trail went higher as well.
5:55 Buck Creek Pass.
      Spoke hunters who said Massie Lk High Route has serious avalanche debris, big logpiles, near its SE end. Massive avalanches went all the way to the valley bottom and piles massive logs on Buck Creek Trail. You'll be impressed by the avalanches and the trail crews.
      Bivvied in basin below Pass No Pass near several couple hunter parties setting-up for High Hunt, which opened Tuesday 9/15/09, after I'd be gone. Glad I'd bought the flashy day-glo hat. Water and snow still in the basin.

Day 3 Mon. 9/14
Stars went out one by one. Awoke in fog.
10:15 Started SW scramble route on Fortress in whiteout, hesitant and slow. In the fog, I chose the worst possible way. Upper part would be much more pleasant in early season with more snow; it's rocky, loose, chossy in places. No place for a dog but there were no other climbers present. Rockfall is a real issue. We got 100' above the overcast, joy. Everything to the west a sea of clouds. Magnificent summit view.
1:50 Fortress summit.
2:20 Left summit.
4:50 Pass No Pass sheep trails up Helmet Butte, fine bivvy site below pass, don't mess it up.
5:35 LV Pas No Pass basin
6:00 on Buck Ck Trail
      Massive avalanche logpiles opposite Mt. Berge, impassable but for the trail crews.
9:45 Trinity
Just before Trinity, in a 5' wide 5" deep stream, two bull trout were hanging in the current. I could've caught them bare-handed, but they'd come a long way.

Car keys were just where I'd left them, in the ignition of my unlocked car.

Just walking the dog.

This was an awesome hike and it rained practically the whole time...so that says something (helps to like your backpacking partner). The 5 mile walk in to Spider Meadow is easy and lovely and the meadow is ridiculously scenic.

Walking up to Larch Knob from the far end of the meadow you gain some elevation via quick switchbacks...we camped at the knob the first night, at the base of Spider Glacier. Great site, fun to roam around there, a great destination even if you're not hiking through the gap. Rain started this night.

Next day walked up Spider Glacier and then down Lyman Glacier...both very straightforward, we only had poles (no ax) which was fine for this time of year.

Negotiating around Upper Lyman Lake is a little circuitous...look for cairns, then descending to Lower Lyman Lakes is SO COOL...the transition from moonscape to forest was lovely, blueberries everywhere! Camped at Lower Lyman...not along the west shore but in the wooded camp area west of the lake which provided pretty good protection from the elements.

Day 3 hiked up to Cloudy and Suiattle Passes, through rain and snow, but still got great views at nearby impressive peaks, saw some deer, ate blueberries. The walk on the Cloudy Pass hiker trail through the granite slope was really cool. Turned back before Image Lake because it was so socked in and we were SOAKED.

Hiked out from Lower Lyman to Holden the last day - about 9 miles, the first couple descend pretty rapidly through brushy stuff which soaked our already drenched gear. The waterfall views are AMAZING, I've never seen anything like it in the N. Cascades.

Bus from Holden to boat at Lucerne to Chelan. YAY! Can't wait to do it again in nice weather. Gaitors, rain gear, pack covers and a tarp over the tent made all the difference on this trip.