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.

We began our annual 5-day backpack trip on August 11, 2009 with a morning ride up Lake Chelan using the Lady of the Lake II. By starting at Fields Point, you cut off at least an hour of boat ride (it is already two hours long) and slightly decrease your cost. After disembarking at Lucerne, we arranged for a bus ride up the 12 mile stretch of road to Holden Village. The bus ride costs $15.00 round trip and reservations for the bus are not required but are perhaps recommended. On our return trip we learned that the next day more than 200 people were leaving Holden. That would be a full bus.

With all the pre-hike travel, you don’t get started on the trail until early afternoon. We hiked the 4.7 miles to Hart Lake the first afternoon. The trail is in very good shape with no problems to note. Shortly before arriving at the lake we spotted a black bear in the brush. It was just a gentle reminder that we are in bear country and once again made me glad I bothered to bring my bear canister. The vast majority of campsites at Hart Lake are on the right (east) side of the lake as you arrive. We had a large group of 8, so this required us to spread out a bit. Bugs were pretty bothersome at Hart.

Day two began with a mid morning hike up to the lower Lyman Lake at 5598 feet. Rain greeted us as we worked our way up the two sets of switchbacks toward lower Lyman. It took the entire group about 3 or less hours to get up to Lyman from Hart. There is one trail junction that can be confusing. At the first junction a sign points you to either upper Lyman Lakes or Cloudy Pass (not referencing lower lakes at all). Part of our group misinterpreted the sign and headed up toward to upper lakes only to realize later the rest of the party was below. This is worth noting and mentioning to others as you hike in. It is the second trail junction within perhaps 2/10 of a mile that splits the trail from lower Lyman to Cloudy Pass. The clouds hung low at lower Lyman and many of the views were obscured. A doe served as a greeting party as lower Lyman and continually returned to eat grass around our camp.

On day three, we began to experience long hours of rain. Although we have had a dry and sunny summer in Washington, we managed to hit the week of rain in the higher elevations. The upper Lyman lakes were socked in and the views were all but non-existent. It rained sufficiently hard that fishing was not possible for the fishermen in the group and many of us just held up in the tents hoping for a good break in the weather – it never came. The morning of day four we decided to cut the trip short by a day as there was no sign the weather would break. It was unfortunate, as only one of the people in our party had seen Cloudy Pass and the array of peaks from that vantage point. The trip down to Holden Village was pretty quick, under 3 hours for the 9.3 or so miles to the village. Upstairs from the Hiking Haus at Holden showers are available and enjoyed by many of us. The bus ride back and the return trip on the Lady of the Lake were fine. By the time we reached Fields Point we were back in sun!

I have every intention of heading back up to Cloudy Pass in the future but will only do it when I have some flexibility in time or am fairly assured of good weather. The logistics and time for travel is too complicated to get up there and have bad weather and no views.

6 day through-hike starting at Phelps Creek Trailhead, passing through Cloudy Pass, and ending at Trinity trailhead (3 miles from the starting point). Flowers were in prime form, but the flies were atrocious, and the thunderstorms kept us on our toes.

Day 1: ~8 miles Phelps Creek trailhead to Larch Knob. Bugs weren't too bad. We stopped at Spider Meadow for lunch - there was some significant but fairly spread out avalanche debris. A couple camp sites were affected and possibly unusable (on the west side of Phelps creek at the enterance to the meadow), but we didn't check it out too closely. There was further avalanche debris further up the meadow, particularly near the Phelps Creek crossing, but it has been cleared by earlier trail maintenance. The skies opened up with monsoon-like rain once we hit Larch Knob. We were heading towards the "balcony" campsite (follow the trail up the ridge to the right, at the saddle head up the hill on the right). We had to wait the rain out, since it turned the steep trails into muddy waterslides. Two thunderstorms later, the skies cleared out and made for some great night photography during whatever meteor shower was happening at the time.

Day 2: ~4 miles Larch Knob, over Spider Gap, to Upper Lyman Lakes. We followed the goat trail up the ridge towards Spider Gap instead of hiking up the glacier. Some very steep trail, but nothing an experienced hiker with a couple poles couldn't handle. Quite a few day-hikers and through-hikers at Spider Gap. We glissaded down much of the snowfield on the far side (one of the guys bounced off a hidden rock and ended up sitting on a single cheek for the rest of the trip...). Note that, when descending from the snowfield to the valley floor, you should stick as far to the right-side hill as possible. We did not do this, and ended up treking across and down the mud hills, which were quite squishy and unstable from the previous night's rain. A thunderstorm rolled overhead soon after hiking along the valley floor, so we took refuge as a campsite off the trail in the upper Lyman Lakes area - absolutely beautiful spot, but this was the start of the bad bugs. Mostly (biting) black flies, but mosquitoes and horseflies as well. This night (and every other night afterwards) bugs disappeared soon after dusk.

Day 3: ~3 miles Upper Lyman Lake to Cloudy Pass. We could have gone further, but I insisted on stopping to camp at Cloudy Pass. The bugs were bad enough in the morning that we struck camp and headed to lower Lyman to have breakfast. Unfortunately, the flies were just as bad at Lower Lyman, but we pumped a whole bunch of water to take up to Cloudy Pass. If anyone considers camping at Cloudy Pass, there is a nice stream between 1/8-1/4 mile on the east side of Cloudy Pass (which made the extra 20 lbs of water on my pack entirely unnecessary). Cloudy Pass was the best campsite of the trip and one of the most gorgeous views I have seen. A good breeze at Cloudy Pass kept the flies mostly at bay, and we finished off the night stargazing and sipping Rumplemintz.

Day 4: ~8 miles Cloudy Pass to Suittle Pass, Miners Creek, Middle Ridge, and Small Creek. The hiker's shortcut from below Cloudy Pass to Suittle Pass was entirely snow free and easily passable. We joined the PCT detour at Suittle Pass. The flies started getting worse as we headed toward Miners Creek in the valley. Climbing back up the other side towards Middle Ridge felt like it wanted to go straight up the side of the mountain. There is a fair amount of avalance debris in the stream gulley right before the trail takes a sharp turn to the east, but its not hard to pick up the trail again on the other side. Flies, as usual, were bad at Middle Pass. The trail down to Small Creek was entirely in the forest with little views and lots of flies - we had tents up in record time and huddled inside until we all went for some creek cleaning and primal scream therapy (combination of cold water and many flies).

Side note - I did this same loop about 15 years ago, and I did not recall heading down into the forest towards Small Creek. I instead recalled much more meadow hiking. There is an unmarked trail that departs from the Middle Ridge crossing towards higher points on the ridge. Out map indicated it was about a mile long and ended at a higher point, but I believe its possible to stay high along the ridge and meadows to make your way to Buck Creek Pass instead of diving down into the woods and back up again.

Day 5: ~1.5 miles Small Creek to Buck Creek Pass. A short day since we planned on doing a day hike up Liberty Cap after reaching camp. There are beautiful views of Glacier Peak from the trail (which crosses Buck Creek Pass a ways above the actual pass). There is also significant avalance damage to the area between the trail and the actual campsite, although it looks like only a single campsite was affected. The breeze that was there when we arrived (around 10am) disappeared soon after camp was set up. The flies moved in, so we decided to nap and do the hike later in the afternoon. Of course, later in the afternoon, the last thunderstorm of the trip stopped overhead and proceeded to rain and flash lightning about every 20-30 seconds. We were a bit uncomfortable taking the trail to higher exposed ground in the lightning, so we stayed back and rested - maybe we'll make it another year.

Day 6: ~10 miles Buck Creek Pass to Trinity trailhead. The first mile was full of wildflowers (even more so that the previous five days). There were huckleberries down much of the trail as well. Once you're past the first mile or so, the trail heads in to the forest and doesn't come out much again. There were large avalanches at about 5.5, 6.0, and 6.5 miles from the Trinity trailhead. We met the current 3-person maintenance crew leaving for their much deserved rest. They had completed clearing the path through the first (5.5 mile) avalance and were nearly through the second avalanche. When we passed by, it was still unpassable, but there is a muddy trail around the bottom. The first avalanche we encountered (6.5 mile) has a lot of trees piled fairly high - the best way around it (until it is attacked by the maintenance crew) is to head uphill and climb over the lowest trees. After this point, there were parts of the trail that were nearly overgrown with grasses or salmonberries, but this mainly caused us to feel like we're hiking in a sauna - there was no chance of actually losing the trail. Flies were bad most of the way down, but eased off in the last couple miles to the trailhead. We ended up arriving 1.5 hours before our ride arrived, so there was plenty of time to soak feet in the creek running next to the trailhead.

Overall, an awesome trip hindered only by the flies. We had sprayed our clothes with Permethrin and used either deet or picradin-based sprays for exposed skin. It was effective for mosquitoes, but had very little effect on the flies. If anything, it caused them to take off slightly quicker, but we were still swarmed at times. Most wildflowers were in bloom along the trip: lupin, beargrass, indian paintbrush, monkeyflower, tiger something-or-other, lots of others whose names I cannot recall. I can't recommend enough stopping at Cloudy Pass for the night if you're passing through - spectacular sunrise/sunset and views in all directions.