Spider Meadows, Spider Gap

Our first backpacking trip of the summer was to Spider Meadow in June, but we were kept from the glacier because of heavy snow cover on the trail. We decided that this past Monday would be a fine time to give it a second shot.

We arrived at the trailhead and our mouths hung open. It wasn’t even the weekend, and there were at least 35 cars parked haphazardly along the road, stretching about a quarter mile from the trail registry kiosk. Brushing off that initial shock, we gathered our things up and were on our way.

Phelps Creek Trail is as easy as they come: wide and flat. It seemed even more freeway-ish considering the 30 or so people we passed that were headed back to the lot. All the stream crossings are easily manageable, probably even if you were wearing nothing but tennis shoes. Beware of the deer flies, if you stand around for long enough they will start biting you! We hit the Meadow after about two hours, in the heat of the day. To our surprise, we didn’t see a single tent set up all the way there.

We took a minute to rest in the meadow and continued to the other side, where the real hike actually starts. At the Y junction with the Phelps Creek Basin/Spider Glacier trails, we headed left up the steep path to the knoll. There are one or two areas on the way up that final stretch that are a bit nervous-making, so be sure to keep your feet and you’ll be alright.

When we made it to the foot of Spider Glacier (which actually is no longer a glacier, unfortunately), we were pretty surprised by what we saw. After having seen nobody camped in the meadow, every established campsite we came across was already taken. There were probably 12 tents, one pitched around every corner. I lobbied for a short trip up the glacier to the higher sites, but the girls were tired, so we ended up shoe-horning our way onto a little ridge overlooking the snow.

The next day dawned bright and early, to the whir of a helicopter engine. This annoying little gnat buzzed back and for the above our heads for the better part of the day, making probably 20 trips to and from god-knows-where. Also, we had flyovers by two different military jets, so be prepared for that if you make the trip. We had breakfast and made our way up the snowfield to Spider Gap, and had a look around at the top, taking a few pictures of Lyman Glacier. This glacier is scheduled to suffer the same fate as Spider did within the coming years, decaying into nothing but a snowfield before it melts entirely. Tragic. We made our way down the ridge opposite Chiwawa Mountain and back to camp, passing several viable camp sites.

Our stay at Spider snowfield brought on a serious mix of emotions: the natural high you get from the seeing the majesty of nature in its most raw form, the melancholy you feel looking at the last sad remnants of what used to be a mighty glacier, knowing that Lyman will inevitably follow, and the frustration of having the serene silence of nature fractured by constant buzzing of motors.