I wanted to find new lakes for fly fishing so we figured we’d look on the Walt Bailey Trail.

The road is in fantastic shape. It took about an hour from Lake Stevens to the trail head. We were the first vehicle to arrive a little after 10am. The trail is rooty and rocky as stated in some earlier posts. It takes you directly into the back country with lots of switch backs. It isn’t however much of a challenge for experienced hikers. Te parking lot was free of snow and the sun was shining. After about a mile or so some snow began to appear on the trail and b the time we got to the top we had around 6 inches of dry powder. Likewise all the water we saw was in solid form (so much for fly fishing.) It was still a fantastic day. Several groups of hikers came in while we sat eating our lunches at near the 3 mile mark. Everyone was friendly and seemed to be well prepared for the conditions. One lady even explained that this was the first time she had seen snow! (I guess she’s not from around here.)

I’d recommend traction devices on your shoes (still don’t need snowshoes yet.) As evidence of that my daughter is now at the clinic with an injured pinky finger. (broken? Possibly.)

No bugs and only as couple of easy deadfalls. Fantastic day. I recommend this hike.

Really wanted to hike today and looked like no chance of the rain letting up. Against my better judgement I decided to go for it. The road to the Walt Bailey TH was terrific. Only one pothole I recall. Bundled up in my rain jacket and gators I headed out. Saying there is water on the trail is an understatement. Many of the trails seemed as if they were a creek they were so waterlogged. The last time I was here it was sunny so this looked like a completely different place today. The fall colors are out in full force even with all the mist and rain. Berries the whole way along the trail. There is a tricky section after the meadows and before coming to the first ridge where you have to follow the pink trail marker tape. You can easily lose the trail here if your not paying attention. There are a couple of stream crossings that were tricky in this weather. I don't remember it being this way at all on the sunny day I was there last year. Heading up the ridge the water is everywhere along with the mud. The waterfalls were cascading down looking pretty. Up at cutthroat lakes the tarns were as full as I have ever seen them. The rain pelting me with the wind blowing hard. I looked around for a bit at all the pretty colorful foliage, snapped a few pictures and am sorry to say they aren't the best as my camera was a bit fogged up and soggy. I made it back down in half the time. Didn't see another soul all day. I bet I was one of the few people crazy enough to hike in that pouring rain. I love seeing my favorite hikes at different times. You get a much different perspective. Soaking wet but worth it!

Great drive to this trailhead. The Malardy Ridge road is one of the smoothest logging roads in the Stillaguamish valley. Knowing that this trail has increased (deservedly) in popularity in the last two years, we arrived early enough to find good parking. We saw just a couple other hikers on the way up, but passed two dozen on the way down.
I was disappointed in the berry crop this year, the berries were extremely sparse, half the size they should be and rather bland. Normally by this time of year the Cutthroat Lakes basin below the summit is awash in a rainbow of fall colors, the evergreens surrounded by the yellows, reds & oranges of the autumnal palette, but this year, just like my garden at home, everything seems to be late and undersized. Still, even swathed in granite gray and forest green, it is a beautiful place in the transition zone between foothills forest and sub-alpine.
The wildflowers, though not exactly numerous, added nice little accents of color here and there along the trail, with bluebells, two types of aster, heliotrope, trillium and red columbine. In another 2-3 weeks, with help from cooler weather, we may yet see fall in all its glory, but at this point its a race against time and the first snowfall.

I had attempted this hike last year too early in the season (late June) and had to turn back due to snow. The snow pack this season was even deeper, so I was worried that the trail may be difficult to follow even at this late date. Good news: The trail is about 98% melted out now and the few sections that still have small patches of snow remaining are easy to negotiate (I brought crampons, but they stayed in the bag for the whole trip).

We left from the TH at around 9:40am and were the third vehicle parked at the end of the road. The first mile or so up to the meadow is entirely snow free.

Dropping down to the west beyond the meadow the trail crosses a couple of snow patches, but they are not so large that it isn't easy to follow footsteps and find the trail on the other side. There is still a large amount of snow in a north facing drainage with an impressive ice cave above an avalanche debris field during the short, rocky traverse(don't venture in to the ice cave - it is close to the end of its life and another party was close enough to hear a large section of it collapse on their way back down), but the trail is pretty clear. The section of trail heading up beyond this point to the lake basin is the steepest and most difficult section of the trail overall with a fair amount of mud and other minor obstacles, but there are quite a few built-in stairs and well placed rocks, so it is not too much work.

Upon making the lake basin (Cutthroat Lakes and many other small tarns that are in various stages of thawing), the views open up quite a bit - you can then see Bald Mountain summit to the south around 800' above. There are several different trails running trough this part of the basin, but it is fairly easy to follow what looks to be the main trail that climbs up to the ridge. It meanders quite a bit and seems to have something of a personality disorder; sometimes taking a direct approach and at other times winding around in strange directions. It was tempting to go off trail to shorten the distance to the summit, but we stuck with it and found that it did indeed enventually wind back around in the direction we wanted to go (watch for the quick turn that leads toward Bald Mtn near the top of the ridge - otherwise you may end up continuing east).

Once making the ridge, the trail eventually ends up on the south side of the divide becoming brushier with views down below to Spada Lake. There are a couple of switchbacks on the south side of the summit before coming to an obvious short spur trail that leads toward to top. There is about 150' of scrambling from this point to the actual summit. Views are amazing - especially back towards some of my other favorite peaks in the area (Del Campo, Gothic Peak, Glacier Peak, Big Four, Forgotten, White Chuck, Pugh, and many others are quite visible from here). We found a summit log and recorded the 22nd and 23rd entries for 2011.

Back to the car after a leisurely descent by about 5:40pm for about an eight hour RT hike. Officially, something like 10 miles and 1800' gain, but with all of the ups and downs it is probably closer to 2500'. Bugs were on the annoying side (flies and mosquitoes), finding us every time we stopped for a break, but not enough to ruin a beautiful day.