Buck Creek #1513,Suiattle Pass #1279,Spider Meadows #1511,Phelps Creek #1511

This is a quick report of a loop trip I took from June 28 through July 1 of 2007. The route went up Buck Creek over Buck Creek Pass to Suiattle Pass, then over Cloudy Pass, past Lyman Lake, up to Spider Gap, down to Spider Meadows and then back to the starting point via Phelps Creek.

We experienced Spring-like weather on the 28th, November-like weather on the 29th, and Summer-like weather on the 30th and the 1st.

Trail conditions and problem areas: The beginning of the Buck Creek trail is very wet ... I ended up walking barefoot for a ways after encountering streams too deep or wide to get across and keep boots dry. Roughly .5 miles before the Buck Creek trail crosses the Chiwawa river there was a unique trail hazard: a sink-hole which spanned much of the available trail and looked to be 10 feet deep! There is very little room to get by on the trail and the terrain is very steep at that point so options are limited. The hole was deep enough that climbing out would be difficult if not impossible. (We spoke to a ranger at the end of the trip and he knew of the hole and had sent someone to inspect it. Be careful!)

Further up Buck Creek we ran into an area which had lots of downed timber ... roughly 4200 ft up to 4500 ft where the trail makes a long switchback before heading towards the pass.

Beyond Buck Creek Pass north facing slopes were snow-covered while the south facing slopes were usually snow-free below 5500 ft. We lost the trail near Suiattle Pass but found a dry patch of ground on which to camp.

The route from Suiattle Pass was mostly snow covered. The weather had cleared and the views from Cloudy Pass were spectacular. The entire route from Cloudy Pass over Spider Gap appeared to be snow covered so we were free to choose our own route. We passed Lyman Lake on the west side then took the first available spot to get across the stream above. The climb over Spider Gap went well until we reached the top of the trail which leads down to Phelps Creek. The trail crosses a fairly steep snow gully and we did not have ice axes ... only hiking poles. The snow was soft enough to allow good steps to be kicked, but attempting this section in the early morning with hard snow would have been a problem.

Phelps Creek is running high and getting across with dry feet was tough ... I ended up wading across. Spider Meadows is snow-free but the trail is again under snow when you reach the woods at the south end of the meadows. All of the creeks which cross the Phelps Creek trail are running pretty high. Leroy creek is a difficult crossing as are several others (Squirrel and Box I think). Hiking poles came in very handy when attempting to cross many of the creeks along the way.

Bugs were not a problem.