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Dutch Miller Gap East Side

 
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Red Mountain, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section J - Snoqualmie Pass to Stevens Pass - East, Dutch Miller Gap, Dutch Miller Gap East Side, Commonwealth Basin, Goldmyer Hot Springs — Aug 28, 2011 — Uli
Day hike
Features: Wildflowers blooming | Ripe berries
Issues: Blowdowns | Bridge out | Overgrown
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Summary: 55 mile run / hike, start at Snoqualmie Pass, PCT to Waptus lake, then Lake Ivanhoe to Dutch Miller...
Summary: 55 mile run / hike, start at Snoqualmie Pass, PCT to Waptus lake, then Lake Ivanhoe to Dutch Miller Gap, Goldmeyer Hot Springs, Old PCT to Red Mtn Pass, Commonwealth Basin back to Snoqualmie Pass. Plan: 11 hours Actual: 16 hours Bringing headlamps was a wise choice....
The entire loop was done in running shoes. No poles or traction devices are needed.
Lots of ripe berries along the way.

The long story, with trail detailed trail conditions for each section:
Adam Lint and I set out at 7:15am on Sunday morning from the PCT trailhead at Snoqualmie Pass. There are several trees across the trail on the climb to Kendall's Catwalk, but easy to get around / over. May be 1/2 mile past the junction with the Commonwealth Basin trail the PCT crosses an open area (avalanche path in the winter). The actual trail just crosses the open area. If you don't pay attention you (like us and many others) might follow a false trail uphill that ends after 50 - 100 yards.
The rest of the way to the Catwalk is in good condition with no snow on the trail.
After the Catwalk there are a few snow patches but the entire PCT section of the trail to Waptus Lake is runable. Got to Park Lakes in about 3 hours, then descended partly through burned-out forest, crossing the outflow of Spectacle Lake (Delate Creek) on a solid bridge. The bridge over Lemah Creek is gone, but there is log across a little downstream. About a mile later you cross another creek (not sure of its name) on a solid bridge. Get some water here as the climb up Escondido Ridge is long and dry (except for a smaller creek near the start of the climb). Eventually the trail flattens out and you pass several small lakes / ponds. The section just above Escondido Lake has seen some recent trail work as the tread is very new. The 3.7 miles (Green trails map) from trail 1329 down to the trail 1362 junction seems to be a little longer than 3.7 miles... got there at 3:00pm.

trail 1362 to Lake Ivanhoe and Dutch Miller Gap. This is where my problems really started. My stomach hadn't been feeling that good before, but after drinking some water it came back out, and then some. Trail is in great shape, but I wasn't, so we ended up walking most of the way to Lake Ivanhoe. It's one of the most scenic lakes I've seen, surrounded by rugged peaks and cascading waterfalls. Just before the Lake the trail splits, and we chose to go around the lake clockwise. You have to cross the outflow of Lake Ivanhoe here on a broken, but still in place bridge. As you begin the final climb to Dutch Miller Gap you cross a creek cascading down on exposed granite, and then down into the lake.

Dutch Miller Gap to Goldmeyer Hot Springs, trail 1030:
First mile is pretty steep down, then flattens out near the junction with Williams Lake. Still couldn't eat / drink much and we jogged most of the downhills, and walked the occasional uphills and the overgrown sections (about a mile total ove overgrown areas, but almost all soft stuff, no salmonberries or other thorny stuff). Trail is easy to follow... Eventually made it to the road and decided to run down the road instead of the trail to the hotsprings. (You have to follow the road for about 1/2 mile anyway, but then you have the option of turning off onto the Middle Fork Trail for the the last 3 miles to the hotsprings.) Go to the hot springs at about 7:10pm. Did not feel good and threw up again. Katie, the caretaker at the hotsprings, was very helpful and made me some ginger tea, and also sent an e-mail to my wife that we'd be later than expected, and not the call S&R. Left the hot springs at 7:30pm.

Goldmeyer Hot Springs to Red Mtn Pass - Old PCT.
At this point we had about 1 hour of daylight left... Immediately after crossing Burnboot Creek on the log bridge (very easy crossing) we turned left on a indistinct looking trail (look for a small sign for "red mtn pass 4 miles") upstream. The trail follows the creek upstream for about 200 meters and then starts climbing unrelenting with many switchbacks towards Red Mtn Pass (1800ft to 5300 ft). Bring plenty of water as there is NO water available until close to the top. There are several trees across the trail, but they pose no problem to the avid hiker. In some sections, especially the upper part of the trail, huckleberry bushes start to overgrow the trail a bit, but even in the dark it was no problem to follow the trail. Eventually you ascent above treeline and the trail switchbacks up next to a snowfield, which as of Aug. 30th was still in part covering the trail. Once you reach the "false summit" you're almost there, at least elevation-gain wise. Now the trail descends slightly and crosses a talus field before the final push up a gully to Red Mtn Pass. There were several snowfields covering the trail leading up the the gully. Fortunately there was about a 2-5 ft gap between the rockwall on the right and the snow fields on the left. At one point the snow was about 10 ft thick, but had a 4 ft high snow cave under it for us to pass through. Would have been super cool if I had felt better. The gully was still partly snow-covered, but even in the dark with just running shoes and a stick we picked up along the way we were able to make it up without too much trouble. We reached Red Mtn Pass at 9:30pm. View of the sky and Milky Way was awesome. Even saw a shooting star.

Commonwealth Basin trail 1033. Trail's in good condition, kind of steep and rocky in the upper part for descenting at night. Commonwealth creek crossing on a log was easy. We chose to descend the PCT rather than the somewhat shorter trail because we didn't know how easy it would be to follow that trail in the dark. Threw up one more time on the way down. Got to the car by 11:30pm.
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Dutch Miller Gap East Side — Jul 03, 2010 — Team Moki
Multi-night backpack
Issues: Snow on trail
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Hiked from Waptus Lake toward Lake Ivanhoe, with the a plan to get over Dutch Miller Gap. The trail up...
Hiked from Waptus Lake toward Lake Ivanhoe, with the a plan to get over Dutch Miller Gap. The trail up the ridge was warm even on a cool day. In the heat of the summer I'd recommend an early start for this stretch.

Started to hit snow on trail about 0.5 mile from the lake and within 0.25 mile it was mostly snow covered. The lake itself was still 90% snow/ice covered. Too much snow around the lake to continue over the gap or find a camping spot so we hiked back down toward Waptus Lake.
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Jack Creek #1558,Klonaqua Lake #1563,Meadow Creek #1559,French Creek #1595,Necklace Valley #1062,La Bohn Gap,Dutch Miller Gap #1030,Dutch Miller Gap #1362,Pacific Crest (Alpine Lakes) #2000,Robin Lakes #1376.1,Snowall Cradle Lake #1560,Williams — Sep 08, 2008 — DickandDoug
Day hike
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West to East Crossing of Alpine Lakes Wilderness August 28 to Sept. 5 8/28 Necklace Valley/East Fork Foss River. Two of us...

West to East Crossing of Alpine Lakes Wilderness

August 28 to Sept. 5

8/28 Necklace Valley/East Fork Foss River. Two of us entered in light drizzle via Necklace Valley trail, camping at Jade Lake. Buggy when no breeze or rain. Wet brush overhanging trail at thigh level.

8/29 LaBohn Lakes. Continued up to head of valley and up way trail to LaBohn Lakes. Well cairned. Take talus slide upward along left edge to near its top. Cairns mark start of trail through trees to left and up. Camped at lower lake. Rain in evening, then clearing and ice on tent fly in morning. Decent cairns up and south to LaBohn Gap.

8/30 LaBohn Gap, Williams Lake, Dutch Miller Gap, Waptus River. Passed through LaBohn Gap and down to Chain Lakes, and on down below. Cairns less frequent, several variations marked, some snow remaining in bottom of valley, hard and thick. Found top of way trail down to Williams Lake at head of gully opening into talus slope below. Trail veers off to left of gully into trees and does not descend talus. Quite a bit of blowdown on this way trail, with fresh work arounds, careful trail spotting. Many bugs at Williams Lake. Good trail down to junction with Middle Fork Snoqualmie and up to Dutch Miller Gap. Trail down to Ivanhoe Lake is good. Bridge crushed below Ivanhoe, badly slanted, unsuitable for horses or easy walking, but passable. Further down, trail is a bit brushy, very noticable when wet. One creek crossing before intersection with PCT needed poles to avoid fording.

8/31 PCT from Waptus River to Cathedral Pass. Good trail, many people, blueberries ripe in a couple places, and no where else on the entire trip.

9/1 Cathedral Pass to Robin Lakes Creek crossings on PCT are fine.

Trial up to Tuck and Robin Lakes clearly marked, well cairned up to Robin Lakes, but need to pay attention or its easy to lose. Bugs not too bad at Robin Lakes. Frost and freezing overnight, but still bugs in morning. Three mountain goats visited our camp in morning.

9/2 Cross country up to ridge of Granite Peak, and south along eastern side of ridge. Descended to unnamed round lake halfway down to Klonaqua Lakes, mostly on heather slopes and talus, connecting ledges to avoid seriously cliffy gullies. Check 7.5 minute Mt Daniels topo for best looking terrain. From unnamed lake, at lower edge and right of outlet, we found a cairn and faint fisherman's trail leading down a ways and then left into a rock slot weakness through first band of cliffs below lake. The route through the second band of cliffs much lower was right of the main stream (facing down)and well right of the initial slot descent. Eventually reached the upper lake shore at its head in a grassy area. Faint fishermans trail (mostly bushwack)leads clockwise around northern shore to campsite on isthmus between the two lakes. Summary of day: Difficult cross country routefinding through potentially hazardous terrain. No ropes or ice ax needed but care and experience. May be other better routes down. About 7 hours from Lower Robin Lake including much map reading, looking, exploring several sections without packs, and enjoying the views.

9/3 Klonaqua Lakes/French Ck/Snowall Ck Followed fishermans trail (good though) from isthmus to Bob Lake, and along outlet of Bob Lake down and left to join official Klonaqua Lakes trail left of outlet creek. Trail has a number of trees across it and is brushy lower down. Crossing of Klonaqua Ck at junction with French Ck trail easy on rocks without ford now. Descended French Ck trail to junction with Snowall Crk trail. Ford of French Ck not difficult at this time, but hiker ford doesn't lead to trail on the other side which is well south of where Snowall Ck joins French Ck. The obvious shallow ford is north of Snowall Ck. Signage, etc could be better. Bushwacked to find trail.

Snowall Ck trail is good turning to brushy further up. Camped in meadow west of Cradle Pass. Not too buggy. Trail easy to lose in some meadows, with horse and elk variations, mud and overgrowth.



9/4 Cradle Lake, Meadow Ck, Jack Ck. Trail up over Cradle Pass and down to Cradle Lk is generally good. Beautiful area with great views of Stuart Pass, Mt Stuart from NW and north side of Ingall's Peak. Unfortunately, 5-6 small forest fires were burning in upper Jack Ck basin, above where Meadow Ck joins Jack Ck. These obstructed our planned exit over Stuart Pass to N Fork of Teanaway. Trail down to Meadow Ck was good, as was Meadow Ck trail from Snowall/Cradle Lake trail junction to junction with Jack Ck trail. Temporary sign at Jack Ck announced closure of Jack Cr Trail and Van Epps Pass Trail south of Meadow Ck. due to fires. (Caused by lightning several weeks earlier we later discovered.) So we descended Jack Ck. to Icicle River Road. Trail generally good. No cars, no people at trailhead or campgrounds at Rock Island or Chatter Ck. Camped at Chatter Ck Campground, not understanding why all was so deserted.

9/5 Icicle River Road Got up early, and began hiking down road to east. After a mile, the river began running over the road and we understood why there were no cars or people. A one lane fairly new dirt road workaround led about half a mile around the washout. It was closed to traffic and had lots of boot prints. At the new road end, two empty cars, two portapotties, and a good view of the river running off the road for the last time. ( We later learned a June 8, 2008 landslide provoked by rain/snow melt came down the northern facing slope into the river, diverting it onto the road on the northern side of the old river bed.) We very luckily picked up a ride almost immediately from a newly arrived car and had a real breakfast in Leavenworth. We were prepared to take the bus home, leaving Leavenworth at 1:10pm for Seattle, arriving 4:30pm, but an anxious family member came to get us instead.

This is a classic crossing of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, linking a number of very scenic lakes, passes and lightly used trails. Except along the PCT over Labor Day Weekend, we saw a total of 8 people, all but two day hikers. Unsettled weather and the Icicle Ck Road washout may have helped us here. We went 48 hours west of PCT seeing no one, and 72 hours east of PCT seeing no one. The difficult cross country section above Klonaqua Lakes could be avoided by descending into the Cle Elum River from Cathedral Pass and ascending over Paddy-Go-Easy Pass to French Ck and Meadow Ck Pass. This has the disadvantage of touching a road, missing Tuck and Robin Lakes, Klonaqua Lakes and Cradle Lake. The exit over Stuart Pass would be most ideal, and we intend to go back to finish our trip properly.

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Dutch Miller Gap #1362,Middle Fork Snoqualmie River #1003,Williams Lake #1030.1 — Aug 12, 2008 — the Lorax
Day hike
Issues: Bugs
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Had a great four days in the Dutch Miller - LaBohn area. Walked up the Middlefork, being thankful that the...

Had a great four days in the Dutch Miller - LaBohn area. Walked up the Middlefork, being thankful that the road was closed. Ah what we didn't know was that a construction crew had an enormous sloppy car camp with tarps, garbage and beer bottles at the head of the trail. They brought a huge presence to scenic Pedro Camp, forcing us to Lake Williams. The pink tape every 25 feet or so was a nice touch. You know, this trail is in great condition, why the unnecessary work? Side note: Trails and roads are gouges in nature, not natural resources. Hike tough or stay home. Back to the report: Dog crap at Lake Williams, which is starting to recover from decades of over-use. Every campsite in the area had a fresh illegal firepit, with fresh illegal coals. Shame.

Tried the Becky route up Summit Chief, kinda tough, brushy and cliffy. I got hung up in cliffs on the way down.

The LaBohn gap area is beautiful, still got a lot of snow on the lakes, high ridges are clear. You can swan dive into the old mine shaft if you want.

Bugs? Mega.

The outlet bridge at Ivanhoe was smashed (duh, it never had a chance. waste of someone's money and time.) You know they make rocks that you can hop across on, don't get your jogahiker goretex megagear wet!

Left mountains with a sprained knee and feet that looked like meteoric debris, found cold beer at car. Awesome. Only hikers encountered were stuck-up Goldmeyer types.

Leave rover home and go see the gap. With a stove.

Lorax

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Location
Dutch Miller Gap East Side (#1362)
Snoqualmie Pass

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