White Pine Creek, Frosty - Wildhorse Creek, Ladies Pass & Lake Edna — Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - East

We did a 4-day trip from Whitepine trailhead to Lake Grace, Frosty Pass, Lake Mary, Mary’s Pass, Ladies Pass, and Lake Edna, returning to our starting point. This was our Plan B if we failed to secure a walk-in Enchantments permit at the Leavenworth ranger station. We actually tried the Enchantments lottery twice, taking a day hike to Lake Valhalla and staying in Leavenworth to come back for a second failure. But we were very happy with our consolation prize. The best things about this route are many beautiful, swimmable lakes, spectacular views above the treeline between Mary's Pass and Ladies Pass, and very few people. The main drawback is the long, not-too-scenic first day, which you can break into 2 days only by camping someplace relatively uninteresting. We took 7.5 hours at a modest pace to walk the 9.4 miles (with 4000 feet total climb) from Whitepine trailhead to Lake Grace. (This doesn’t count a half hour exploring the left fork you reach after about 6 miles. We thought this might be a shortcut to Grace, but it quickly leads to a meadow with no clear path beyond. Unless you have time to explore, stay to the right following the marked main trail.) The actual left fork to Grace is clearly marked at 8.3 miles. Even though the path is faint, it was pretty easy to follow. There was a spot near the beginning, just after crossing a rocky gully, where the path seemed to disappear because it dropped down for a minute before climbing again. Mostly, though, it climbs and climbs, with occasional cairns marking the way. Our campsite had an unobstructed view of the beautiful lake; there’s another site near the smaller pond just before the lake and a nice secluded spot on the far side of the lake in the woods. There is also a bit more beach on the far side of the lake which slopes nicely into the water for quick dips. We saw one group of 12 on a short hike near the trailhead and another group of 3 descending from the lakes. On day 2 we swam in the morning and then shifted camp up past Frosty Pass to Lake Mary. There are 2 turnoffs marked for Lake Mary from the main trail #1570; the western one is better when you’re connecting with the west and the eastern one... well, you get the idea. This hike took well under 3 hours. The campsite by Lake Mary is close to the lake although partly obstructed by trees; there’s another, larger site across a stream by a pond. If you climb about 10 minutes beyond that site you get to a nice viewpoint overlooking an avalanche slope. There’s a toilet near the lake. Mary was a little warmer than Grace, perfect for swimming. We saw no people that day. On day 3 we day hiked to Lake Edna. At Mary’s Pass we took a side trip up to the left, though only one of us made it to the viewpoint. I suggest giving this a skip unless you like steep descents covered with loose rock. After this misadventure, the trail descended a bit toward Upper Florence Lake, then climbed to a viewpoint, then dropped a little and climbed to a signed junction on a ridge. Trail #1571 turned left, dropping down over the ridge, while we continued right on #1570, climbing up the side of a hill that looked straight out of Lord of the Rings. This trail crosses a ridge before dropping down to Lake Edna. I’m not sure which ridge is Ladies Pass, but the second one is higher. You may want to note – or ignore – that a spot just before the second ridge provided the only cellphone reception (on AT&T and Sprint) of our trip. It was windy on the pass but the views were excellent. We found a somewhat sheltered spot on Lake Edna for a leisurely lunch, but if you want to camp there, you must be at least 200 feet from the lake, and the available choices appeared to be exposed to wind. Then we headed back to Lake Mary for my birthday dinner. We saw 2 other hikers at the other Lake Mary campsite and a heavily-armed hunter who visited our campsite to say hi. On day 4 we took 6 hours to descend 10.4 miles to the Whitepine trailhead. Our string of blue skies ended as we suffered through about 30 seconds of morning light drizzle followed by a partly cloudy day. We saw one couple heading up to Mary for the weekend. Throughout our trip we were lucky to see little smoke from this season’s many forest fires. Notes: The Lake Grace on this route is different from the "Grace Lakes" at Stevens Pass. Also, I have tagged Lake Edna in this trip report but we didn't reach it via the Chatter Creek trail described in its trip report.