Fortune Ponds, West Cady Ridge to Benchmark Mountain & Pear Lake — Sunday, Jul. 24, 2016

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

We had a lovely backpack this last weekend, hiking up Meadow Creek trail to Fortune Ponds, over to Pear Lake, a day hike to Benchmark Mountain via the PCT and then down to Stevens Pass from Pear stopping at Valhalla for the night. The weather was amazing and although the bugs were out in force, it was balanced with beautiful views and just enough breeze to keep them in check. There were about 40 trees down on the whole trip (I was scouting for an upcoming PCTA work party) but crews will be out this week to hopefully clear a lot of it up. The several large piles of trees on the Meadow Creek Trail to Fortune Ponds will probably remain for while, its a mess and its a less popular trail. The PCT needs some work with drainage so mud was plentiful and it was brushy around Lake Janus. We passed a few PCT hikers finishing their trek to Canada, and no one on West Cady to Benchmark, probably because the access road is washed out on the other side making it a very long hike. Lots of water streaming across the trail, I never needed to carry more than a liter at a time. Even had time to circumvent Lake Valhalla, nice little bootpath and scramble on scree before breakfast our last day. I will mention on the Meadow Creek Trail to Fortune Ponds that there is a switchback that folks often miss and they go over a tree growing over the trail and onto what looks like a very muddy, overgrown trail. Although you will see footprints, DO NOT continue. Go back and look up where the trail continues at a switchback.

More Information on this Trip Report

• http://www.musthikemusteat.com/out-with-the-girls/