Boundary Trail - Pasayten — Thursday, Jul. 4, 2013

North Cascades > Pasayten

The toughest part of this backpack is the drive to the trailhead at Iron Gate. All of the guide books warn of the rough, bumpy road, and they don't exaggerate! It was all that my little Subaru could manage. Once on the trail, I was amazed by the views. One normally needs to hike quite a ways to get to the high country, but here one starts at a great enough elevation that the views begin within a half mile of the TH. The starting elevation also ensures that all of the climbs are mild. The snow is almost entirely gone and the wildflowers are in full bloom. The only drawback? The mosquitoes are just hatching, and they are hungry. For the 4th of July, our group hiked from the trailhead at Iron Gate to Dome Camp. We scrambled up the hillside above camp to explore the rocky outcroppings, then traversed over the Haig Mountain to look into Canada. On the 5th of July we continued along the Boundary Trail to the Tungsten Mine site. This is a great place to explore, and it comes complete with a horseshoe game setup. On the 6th, we left our tents behind for a dayhike to Upper Cathedral Lake. The views kept getting better, but it was too cold for me to want to swim. Afterwards we returned to camp, packed up, and went as far as Schillite Pass before stopping for the night. That left us with a long hike out on Sunday, where we experienced a sampling of bad weather: wind, thunder, rain, and hail chased us back to the car. It still wasn't a bad way to end the weekend, and it didn't start until after we had packed up our tents. The most amazing thing about this hike, aside from the views and the flowers, was the fact that there were hardly any other people despite the holiday weekend. We saw fewer than a dozen others all-told.