Cathedral Pass Loop — Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2016

North Cascades > Pasayten

The Pasayten! Not only was I lured to this place because of it's fun-to-say name, but the promise of pristine alpine majesty in a remote and not too traveled wilderness was simply too good to pass up. The 44 mile Cathedral Pass Loop would be my most ambitious backpacking trip yet, I figured 5 days and 4 nights would be enough time to appreciate the beauty of this place. Along with 5 close friends and a Siberian Husky we loaded up our packs full of food and took off from the Thirtymile Trailhead for a grand adventure. Day 1 started out with a 5AM wake-up in Seattle and a 6AM departure. We stopped in Arlington for a delicious breakfast at a place called Ellie's, the chicken fried steak comes highly recommended. From there the drive over the North Cascade's highway awaited us, perhaps the most stunning stretch of road in the state. We arrived in Winthrop at lunch time and enjoyed some food from the Rocking Horse Bakery before taking off for the trailhead. The drive to the trailhead is mostly on smooth paved road but the last bit is fairly rough and rocky, but my low clearance Saturn station wagon did just fine. As this is a lollipop loop, the first leg of the journey is an 8 mile stretch of trail along the Chewich River. This area had a large fire a few years ago which is evident in the many dead trees and open views. It's pretty cool to see how the forest recovers, there were also many blooming flowers and ripe raspberries to enjoyed along the trail! After 8 miles with a handful of blowdowns we made it to the luxurious horse camp right before the creek crossing/loop junction. Day 2 would turn out to be a bit of a slog. Originally we planned to do the 12 miles to Upper Cathedral Lake along the Chewich River trail, but it turns out this bit of forest is inundated with blowdowns! I wouldn't be surprised if we had to go over 100 blowdowns on this day, they seemed endless. This really slowed us down and by the time we reached the junction to go the extra 4 miles to Upper Cathedral Lake we were all a bit too exhausted to make this extra push and decided to spend the night at nearby Remmel Lake instead. It was around here that the grand alpine views of the Pasayten really started to show. Remmel Mountain and the sparkling lake surrounded by emerald meadows was a sight to behold. We took the Remmel Cutoff trail (which Green Trails Maps doesn't illustrate!) down to the lake. Before settling in for the night we took some time to enjoy the meadows, jump in the lake and reflect on how happy we were to be done with blowdowns. Day 3 was lovely, waking up to the beautiful site of Remmel Lake and knowing that we only had a short hike to our next stop for the day meant spirits were high. After an easygoing breakfast and a bit more time spent frolicking about we packed up for a short hike to Upper Cathedral Lake. We backtracked slightly on the trail and took the dotted 565 trail up through gorgeous alpine meadows affording all kinds of sweeping views. Green grass, bright flowers and tarns dotting the landscape were just a few of the joys found along this section of trail. We would soon reach another junction, bringing us to Upper Cathedral Lake. Getting there involved a snowfield crossing which required careful footing since it was a bit on the steep side. Amphitheater Mountain and Upper Cathedral Lake were soon in view, and what a site it was to behold! The sheer granite cliffs of Amphitheater Mountain working in conjunction with the bright green larches, wide array of wildflowers and crystal clear lake were stunning beyond words. A note of caution for anyone visiting, the mountain goats here are very curious and brave when it comes to humans! As soon as we arrived we saw one on the snow slops of Amphitheater Mountain trotting right towards us. It wasn't too long after that the goats tried to get real close to us at camp, they were certainly interested in our salty urine. We had to haze them with yelling and rock throwing for quite some time until they left us alone. Make sure you talk a walk relatively far from any camp and pee on a rock when staying here. With a healthy amount of free time on this day I took a short hike up to Cathedral Pass and climbed up on some rocks to get better views of the area. I missed the walk up trail to Amphitheater Mountain which was a ways back on the 565, but was able to get some excellent views nonetheless. As we were up at 7300 feet it was pretty chilly at night here, but definitely worth it as it's one of the prettiest places I've ever camped. Day 4 promised more excellent mountain scenery and a chance to explore the old Tungsten mine site! We got up pretty early as this would be a 12 mile day and made our way over Cathedral Pass down the Tungsten Creek trail. The mountain views had on this leg of the hike were fantastic, Cathedral Mountain was showing off in all it's granite glory and at one point an amazing view of Remmel, Amphitheater and Cathedral Mountain could be had. After crossing over Apex Pass and heading down the Tungsten trail we reached the site of the old mine that used to be here. This area definitely warrants some exploration, it's really cool! There's several well maintained structures and lots of old heavy duty mining machinery to be seen. After eating lunch here we made our way to the end of the loop portion of this hike and spent the night at the Horse Camp again. Unlike the other side of the loop this portion didn't have nearly as many blowdowns so travel was a bit smoother. We enjoyed our last night together with a nice fire and the continued silliness that pervaded our psyche throughout the duration of our time in the Pasayten. Day 5 would see us back in Seattle by the time night rolled around. After an early morning breakfast we packed up and hit the trail for the last time. About 4 miles in we encountered a black bear on the trail! Luckily, with 6 of us making lots of noise it quickly took off and we were able to proceed in peace. Although we weren't terribly thrilled about leaving this beautiful place and returning to the chaos that is modern life, the thought of burgers and beer definitely kept us moving. We enjoyed some ripened raspberries on this last leg of the journey before crossing the bridge and reaching our cars. How strange to be in a moving vehicle it was! Following a quick pit stop in Winthrop we drove our way through the mountains and once again found ourselves in the Puget Sound. Our prophecy of burgers and beer came true with an evening spent at the Scuttlebutt Brewery in Everett, a grand feast it was! This was certainly one of the most enjoyable wilderness experiences I've had. We didn't see anyone else until day 3 at Upper Cathedral Lake, even then other humans were few and far between. If you can handle the blowdowns on the first section of this hike you'll be handsomely rewarded. The Pasayten has definitely earned a special place in my heart that will beckon my return someday.