Spider Gap, Lyman Lakes, Buck Creek Pass

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.