Heather Pass / Maple Pass Loop -- a perfect August hiking day: Left the trailhead at 10:00am, went to the right at the Lake Ann sign (mile 1.3) and hiked to Heather Pass (mile 3). Emerald-green Lake Ann kept us company with photo op after photo op -- very beautiful. At Heather Pass, Lewis Lake and Blackpeak Mountain shone in the distance. A quick break and on to Maple Pass (mile 3.5). Lake Ann again sparkled under blue skies. Tried to stop for lunch but the bugs encouraged us to move on quickly. Easily crossed several broad snow-fields without needing to use our hiking poles -- a minor issue at best. We continued to the top at 6850 feet -- a 2000 ft elevation gain. (Mile 4.5) From there the descent was 2.5 miles, rather steep but much easier going down. Beautiful heather at mile 5.0 and Lake Ann from the opposite side at mile 5.5. This is a MUST hike -- beautiful views, good trail and doing a loop was far better than retracing one's step. Bring sun-screen, good bug spray and plenty of water. The 4.5 mile ascent is only moderately steep but a read grinder.

Still obsessed with the North Cascades, I decided to take faithful Daphne for a hike on this beautiful sunny day up to Heather and Maple Pass. While this loop hike to Heather and Maple Pass is quite beautiful, to me, it isn't quite in the same premier category as Skyline Divide, Hidden Lakes, Cascade Peak/Sahalie Glacier, or Spider Meadow. But it is a hike that's worth doing because the views--while not as astoundingly breath-taking as those seen on the aforementioned trails--are nevertheless, gorgeous.

At 9:30 am, about a dozen cars at the trail head, which is located in the Rainy Pass picnic-area parking lot (not the Rainy Pass trail head parking lot, which is on the east side of the highway). Only passed about ten small hiking parties all day on this 8.4 mile loop (with Lake Ann and Rainy Lake detours) which I did counterclockwise, starting on the steep, dirt path and ending on the paved walkway.

The fork to Lake Ann (to the left) is at 1.3 miles, but honestly, I felt the lake wasn't worth the extra 1/2 mile, as it's much prettier viewed from above. Nevertheless, Daphne was hot so we hiked down there to let her swim. After returning to the main trail, we had to cross an ankle-twisting 1/2 mile of rock slide before ascending to Heather Pass. Views from the pass down to Lake Ann are great here. There's a well-worn boot path to the right, just before the pass, which heads off to Lewis Lake, a milky green lake I could see from the switchbacks.

On Maple Pass, there was a nice breeze which kept bugs away and several nice, flat areas with large slabs of rocks and grand views of Glacier Peak--great spots from which to enjoy lunch. From Maple Pass on, the main trail is simply the widest of an assortment of criss-crossed boot paths, some of which lead to views, some to small tarns, and others to seemingly nowhere.

A large stick buttressed by a pile of rocks marks the 6850-foot high point of this hike, on a shoulder of Frisco Mountain. From there, it's steep switchbacks down towards Rainy Lake, where larkspur, lupine, sitka valerian, saxifrage, western anemone, red paintbrush, penstemon of many varieties, and many other wildflowers were in vibrant bloom. A hanging waterfall is visible to the right.

To give Daphne another swim, we turned right when the trail met the paved walkway at 5.8 miles, and walked a flat 0.6 miles to Rainy Lake before returning up the path back to the trail head.

STATS:
LOOP DISTANCE plus two lake excursions: 8.4 miles
ELEV. GAIN: 2000 ft (4855 ft trail head, 6850 ft highest point)
GRADE: easy to moderate
TIME: 4:20 at a medium pace
DOGGY NOTES: several seasonal streams, lakes, and tiny tarns provide sufficient water; trail is shaded at the beginning and end but there is no shade on the pass
MAPS: Green Trails 49, 50
PASSES: NW Forest Pass
OTHER NOTES: (1) Mosquitoes are out. I swear, that citrus eucalyptus juice does the trick against both mosquitoes and biting black flies! (2) One surprising patch of snow around 6750 ft, easy to cross. (3) Two small blow-downs (one on either end of the trail), but easy to step over. (4) Wildflowers on the Rainy Lake side are gorgeous and peaking.

PHOTO NOTE: Alas, for some reason, the WTA site won't permit me to upload photos tonight.

Lewis Lake from Heather Pass. We hiked into Lewis Lake for the first time on Sunday hoping to see some snow and good fall colors. The warm temperatures had melted all the snow from the past storm except for the boulder field between Heather Pass and Lewis Lake. This boulder field is in the shade all day this time of year. The blue berries were done, however the larch trees were in all their golden glory. The temperature ranged from 25 at 8:00 A.M. all the way to 35 by day's end. Turned out to be a great hike and day as we had the area past Heather Pass to the lake all to ourselves.

As for the details, one way distance to Lewis Lake is 3.3 miles, 6.6 round trip. Trail head at Rainy Pass is 4900 feet and the trail climbs at an average 10% grade to 6100 feet at Heather Pass. This section of the hike is well documented in many hiking guides and numerous trip reports.

At Heather Pass, the trail leads west over the saddle for about 0.3 mile and drops about 100 feet of elevation. Now you must enter the infamous boulder field below Corteo Peak. The boulder field is 0.5 mile long, loses elevation, gains a little back, and finally loses elevation to the level of Lewis Lake at 5700 feet. There are two sets of rock cairns through the boulder field, one tall set and one short set. With 2 inches on snow on the boulders, following either of these 2 tracks was useless. We followed the boot tracks of a few other hikers through the snow on the boulders as much as possible. It was obvious that this track was made by combining the rock cairns with keeping the lake in sight. The 2 inches of snow on the boulders made the 1/2 mile trip through the boulder field a 1 hour, one step at a time endevour. If these boulders would have been iced over by rain followed by freezing temps, I would have never continued on through the area. When enough snow builds up here skiing or snowshoeing across would be the way to go if the highway is still open for access.

Lewis Lake was worth the effort! The trail picks up again on the north (lower) side of the boulder field where the outlet stream is. There are several braids to the trail most of which lead to camp sites or views into the valley. There is one Hilton Hotel class campsite with a well developed fire ring right at the lake. A rock knob extends into the lake and provides a great lunch spot with superb views of Black Peak and the route to Wing Lake.

All through here the view north, across the highway 20 cut, into the Porcupine Creek valley and up to Cutthroat Pass is outstanding. The glacial carved 'U' shapes and the 2 hanging valleys (a lower and an upper) formed in the Porcupine Creek drainage are textbook examples of this type of formation. Golden Horn can also be seen from most of the way past Heather Pass.

With the blueberries done, it appears the bears have moved on. Two trip reports from August discuss the bear activity quite a bit. The only bear sign we saw was one old track in the snow near Lewis Lake. Spotted a doe in the open avalanche chutes in the early part of the hike. The fall colors on highway 20 are well turned: vine maple, berry bushes where they haven't been frost bitten, and larches at the higher elevations. Lewis Lake is definately worth a multiday backpack to allow time for exploring the area.

Marty

This is a gorgeous, relatively easy hike. The beginnings of fall colors made it all the better on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

After navigating the carpark, we head off to hike the Maple Pass loop in a counter-clockwise direction, heading first up past Lake Ann then Heather Pass, Maple Pass and back down past the turn off to Rainy Lake. There were quite a few cars at the trailhead, and we saw probably 20 people at various points on the trail.

The trail starts by switchbacking through the forest, then opens onto a rock area, which it traverses, turns a corner, and reaches the junction with the trail to Lake Ann. We opted out of the side trip, knowing that views of Lake Ann from above would soon come into sight. The trail continues ridge like up to Heather Pass and then up to Maple Pass. In the heat of mid-summer, this trail would be very hot as it is exposed most of the way. For our hike however, the sun offered some welcome opportunity for warming as it was quite cold in the shade.

We stopped a while at Heather Pass for a bite to eat and continued up to Maple Pass, passing a curious hoary marmot along the way. From the pass we headed south up towards Frisco Mountain to find the junction with return loop back to the trailhead. After a few switchbacks on the south side of a ridge in the sun, the return loop soon entered forest coverage (cool and dark) for the remainder of the trip down.

Saw many couples/ groups taking their dogs out for a walk. While I love dogs, I have been bitten by one on a trail before - PLEASE leash your pets. Only two of the maybe ten dogs we saw were leashed.