Trip Reports

Gorgeous and famous hike - not much to add. Trail is outstanding tread, views from the trailhead are better than from many trail destinations, and trail is very heavily traveled; to wit, there is a composting toilet and granite blocks arranged in amphitheater seating at the pass to accommodate the crowds. There is no solitude here, but the views remain.

From the pass the 800 feet up the switchbacks to Sahale Arm are well worth it. We went just past the turnoff for Doubtful Lake, to the little ridge that gives you views of Sahale Glacier, the Lake, and far off peaks in all directions. We didn't go up to the Glacier - it looked a long way away.

There are a few berries on the trail, more as you hike up to Sahale Arm.

Beware that the Cascade River Road is closed at milepost 12 beginning Tuesday September 8 through the end of October, so Labor Day weekend is possibly your last chance of the season to get this hike in.

To read this report in its original form, with photos, check out my blog: http://dontlookdown.wordpress.com/[…]/

And, more photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/[…]/

After seeing friends' photos from an overnight trip up Sahale Arm via Cascade Pass several years ago—even before we began hiking seriously—the trip has sat almost constantly atop our queue, waiting for the perfect window of time and weather to savor the experience.

This wouldn't be that.

But it wasn't half-bad, either.

After reading that the Cascade River Road would close September 1st and remain closed through much of October, I set aside the hope that this would be the year that we'd backpack up Sahale Arm and spend the night under starry skies and, instead, settled for a dayhike up to Cascade Pass, or perhaps a bit beyond. If all I'd read was to be believed—i.e., that I'd run out of superlatives before reaching the pass—we'd be returning for that idealized evening on the Arm, anyway.

Knowing that the trail would be busy no matter what the time, and doing our best to get all of six hours of sleep after watching [a movie] the night before, we left West Seattle at 06:20. After stopping in Marblemount in a thwarted attempt at a warm breakfast sandwich, we headed up the 23-mile Cascade River Road stuffing a quarter-pound of Costco muffin into each of our mouths. Signs along the way warn that the road is primitive, but it's actually an excellent road, with glimpses up and across the valley all along the way. At 09:10, just less than three hours after leaving home, we pulled into a large, mostly-full parking lot. I'd expected views at the parking lot, but I was impressed nevertheless by the dominating face of Johannesburg Mountain, even as seen through our cracked windshield. Its upper reaches were shrouded in clouds.

Once booted up, we left the trailhead (3600') behind us and set ourselves a speedy pace, putting space between us and a party of ~ten that seemed like it was almost ready to hit the trail as well. The trail ascends numerous—but gentle—switchbacks, and though we heard voices below us from time-to-time, we were treated to a surprising quietness as we climbed. Our pace stayed quick, slowing only as we glanced over our shoulders down the Cascade River valley (which came into view about forty minutes into the hike) or across to Johannesburg again.

Around 10:30, the trail—no longer switchbacking, now traversing—crosses a large rockfield; pika sounds abound. Cascade Pass is in sight.

As we rose to the pass, so too did the voices of those who had stopped at the pass: admirers of the Stehekin Valley and the peaks on either side, climbers off to Eldorado, et al., and those content to take a seat on rock benches and eat their early lunches. We sat down briefly among the eight—nine—ten there and added our quiet voices to the chorus. It was 10:55; it had taken us just over an hour-and-a-half to make it the ~3.7 miles and 1800' of gain to the pass (5400').

Though the views were nice when we reached the pass, in all honesty, the views toward the direction we'd come from (West) were better than those over the pass (East). Since we'd made such good time, we set off again, toward Sahale Arm, intending to climb only as far as we felt like it, hoping to see Sahale Peak itself and Doubtful Lake below it.

The climb from Cascade Pass to Sahale Arm is by far steeper than the trail beforehand, but not overly difficult. It is, however, quite rocky, and after ~thirty minutes and an encounter with a relaxed marmot, Nicole decided to turn around and wait for me at the pass. Her ankle had been bothering her since the weekend before, when we'd backpacked up to and down from Gothic Basin. Giving the ankle a rest was probably a good idea, as we have a lot of hiking to do in the next few weeks...

I continued up alone, reaching the ridge crest (6200') and an intersection with a trail down to Doubtful Lake at 11:35. Here, Sahale Peak and its Arm are visible, though the summit itself remained hidden in the clouds. I continued several steps further. Then the beautiful blue Doubtful Lake appeared below me. I took pictures for a few minutes, turning often to look up the Arm, trying to see just where we'll camp when we do do this as a backpack...

I met Nicole back at the pass at 12:10. She'd been eating Combos, watching marmots, and layering up. There was a cold wind at the pass. I added a layer and we headed down at 12:20, stopping briefly to take someone's photo, and again to take off a layer once out of the wind.

We coasted down the semi-busy trail, coming to a halt finally in the parking lot at 13:45 to use the restroom and take off our boots. Shortly thereafter, we were off. A fine day, aside from the parking lot known as southbound I-5.

Indeed, this is a wonderful hike with beauty straightaway. I can see why it is one of the most popular trails in Washington, and I'm looking forward to spending the night up Sahale Arm, hopefully on a quiet, fall, non-weekend day.

Stats: ~9 miles round-trip from the trailhead (3600') to Sahale Arm (6200') and back—it's ~7.2 round-trip to Cascade Pass. There's 1800' of elevation gain en route to the pass, and another ~800' up to my turnaround point, for a total gain/loss of 2600'—a few hundred feet less for Nicole. It took us 1:35 to make the pass, it took me 1:10 to climb up the Arm and back, and it took us 1:25 to descend from Cascade Pass to the parking lot. Hike time: 3:00 round-trip to the pass, 4:25 total.

Prettiest Hike I have ever been on!

The trail is in GREAT shape with 35 switchbacks leading up to Cascade Pass. The switchbacks seem to go on forever with 3,000 ele gain to the top of the pass. The hike is mostly in the forest with a few open spots. Make sure to watch your feet as you might trip while looking at the mountains and being in awe at the glaciers and waterfalls.

Once you come out of the forest you'll be able to see the parking lot and the little cars. A few hundred feet later you make the pass. A few places to sit and take in the views. We saw our first of 4 marmate (big rat thing) eating berries at the pass.

Head left on the trail and start up again (more steep) for about 1 mile to the views of Doubtfall lake and Sahale Mountain. Once on Sahale arm (flat meadows) work your way to the base of Sahale mountain. This is the end of Sahale Arm.

I took a few minutes to look around 360 view and take it all in. Huge 7,000-8,000 peak mountains all around with glaciers on all of them. It's amazing and totally breath taking. A MUST hike for any day hiker!

-No Dogs or any pets
-Amazing Date hike
-No Bugs
-Make sure to get to trailhead early, before 10am on weekends
-A camera a MUST

Superlatives or photos can hardly do this hike justice, for it must be one of the top day hikes in the state. I've hiked regularly for the past dozen years and rarely have found a trail to equal this since its panoramic views are probably the finest look to be had at North Cascades Nat'l Park for the hiker. The trail was simple to follow all the way to the high camp at the base of the Sahale glacier, 7600'. I was feeling adventurous and climbed 400' more up the glacier to a flat spot with a rocky outcropping on the west side. In that direction I could see Forbidden, Eldorado and Baker. While there I noticed a small crevasse near my path up. That and the steepness leading to the horn of Sahale Mountain led me to go no higher.
Loads of flowers on view on the Arm, plus many marmots, a grouse and a mountain goat. The only drawback on this othewise perfect outing were the large biting flies, but I was well covered up and they had little chance.
A Stairway to Heaven for this hiker.

On the road by 2 and through Seattle by 5, I was the first one at the Marblemount Ranger Station by 7 and scored Friday Sahale Arm and Saturday Boston Basin camping permits. I was so pleased that I nearly hugged the surprised on-duty park ranger. My vague notion was to take three days to travel up the Cascade Pass Trail and onto Sahale Arm, cross-country to Boston Basin, head down the climber's trail to Cascade River Road, and foot it 3/4 mile on the road to connect with my car.

After the 22 miles on the Cascade River Road from Marblemount to the Cascade Pass Trailhead, I ate breakfast, took pictures, puttered around and packed, so I didn't hit the trail till near ten. Despite the late departure hour, and time spent taking zillions of photos, I didn't see many hikers. I passed three groups who were taking even more pictures than I was, and seemed to be the first to arrive at marvelous Cascade Pass, with spectacular views of the Cascade Peak-Johannesberg Ridge, and acres of flowers and purple heather in bloom. Perhaps the only thing to match the panorama was the absence of almost all bugs. There was a quorum of large green-headed flies, but they were so big and slow that bumping them off was more of a pastime than a pain.

A few snow patches encroached on the trail at the pass, but it was easy to find the switchbacks up to Sahale Arm and another stunner: the swan dive down to Doubtful Lake and range upon range of peaks south. This may be as close as it gets to heaven before it's too late. The splendor on the arm continues with views and now pink and white heather, and lupine, bistort, purple thistles, penstemon, glacier lilies and more. Eventually it's the rocky, steep uphill to the rock encircled sentry posts at Sahale Arm Camp. I took the most incredible one at the very edge of the thousand foot drop to Doubtful Lake. Over the course of the afternoon I set up camp, at lunch, played in the snow-covered basin, watched a few more groups arrive, and generally lounged. It was my camera shutter that was working overtime. Just before cocktail hour, a pair of park rangers dropped by to check permits, and they confirmed the feasibility of cross-country travel to Boston Basin. After that it was iced lime daiquiris, sunset, dinner and stars.

Following a leisurely Saturday breakfast and packing up, I embarked on my off-trail excursion to Boston Basin at about 10:30, giving me at least 10 daylight hours in near perfect weather to travel about 1 mile as the crow flies. The first matter of business was to head down the rocky part of the regular trail to the highest grassy area of Sahale Arm. At that point, about 6600 feet, my route took me due north above the steep snowfield that feeds into Soldier Boy Creek. After that, one option would have been to proceed upwards and along the crests of the two nearest scree mounds below the southern part of Quien Sabe Glacier. Instead, I aimed for a track beneath the scree mounds across two small snow fields as they flattened out, perhaps at about 6200 feet. My plan was to contour near the upper edge of the vegetation line at about 6000 feet, and to connect up near the lower part of the third, smaller (and more northern) scree mound that I though might be on the southern side of Boston Basin's lower edge, below the high meadows where I thought I saw the trail. On the whole, the plan worked reasonably well, but remarkably slowly. Crossing Midas Creek soaked my boots, and crossing Morning Star Creek did likewise, and also required a scramble to get up its northern bank. There were a few brushy areas, particularly for about 100 yards on each side of each creek. Also, the seemingly inviting grassy slope just south of the third scree/rock pile didn't offer pleasant footing. Nevertheless, once I finally got to the scree/rock mound it was home free, and it was comforting to arrive at an overlook down to Boston Creek's south fork, about 200 feet above the two or three tents already there. One last descent, another river crossing and I was there at Boston Basin lower camp, a mere five hours after my start. I suppose that's what comes of cross-country travel with a full pack and past-warranty knees.

Being too lazy to press on to the upper camp, I spent the last few hours before dinner scoping out tent sites, setting up camp, wandering up the rock along the cascades and water falls, and recording images of the fabulous views up to Eldorado, Mount Torment, and Forbidden Peak. At cocktail hour, park rangers passed by, checking camp permits, and commenting on the archaic look of all my equipment. Since it was overcast, I didn't stay up late to confer with the stars, but slept to the voices of Boston Creek.

Sunday morning, I got the opportunity to see why the National Park Service makes few claims concerning the Boston Basin climber's trail. From the junction of the lower camp side trail with the main trail, everything goes pleasantly for about a quarter mile, then there's a river crossing and things start to change. After a bit, there's a 100-200 yard wide avalanche track that requires negotiation: for the most part, the correct direction is obvious, but the timber-strewn course demands a degree of backpacker gymnastics. Shortly thereafter there's a steep stretch, and a leveling off. Then, perhaps a little less than a mile from the trailhead, the way dives down chutes where low slung cedars and alders press heavily on heads and packs. You might be inclined to speculate as to what misanthrope charted this path, and what it must be like in rotten weather. Eventually, the trail flattened, and the final half mile to the road is fine. Once I hit the road, it was 3/4 mile and about 500 feet up to my trusty car, which greeted my arrival with equanimity. We drove home with me replaying images of the gorgeous North Cascades in my mind, and my car humming to itself.

I thought I'd break myself away from the Tour de France and go on one of my all time favorite hikes... Sahale Arm of Cascade Pass. After driving the 23 miles on Cascade River Road again, I still contend that this is one of the best dirt roads in the state! It has nearly no potholes! The parking lot was quite full despite it being a Friday - I guess a few others were playing hooky. I came across quite a few international hikers (Australians, Brits, and Germans) and I'm always happy to see folks taking in the beauty of our state. The trail is remarkably melted out. There are scattered snow patches starting about 1/2 mile from the pass, only one had some runout and I was happy to have at least my hiking poles with me. Sadly, the marmots were not out and singing as I had hoped. I did see some gigantic bear paw tracks in one of the snow patches, but no bear. This is truly one spectacular hike, and one to which I return each year.

We planned an overnight trip up at the base of Sahale Glacier after attempting it once before 3years ago but only made it to the base of Sahale's arm. We started out at the trailhead at 12:30 for Cascade Pass- Sahale Arm. The day was absolutely amazing, warm weather with a nice gentle breeze the whole entire stretch. Minding the endless 33 switchbacks along the way, you have gorgeous views of Johannesburg Peak and plenty of canopy to keep you covered from the sun. There are lots of opportunities to get water along the way. Snow patches are still along the trail and especially one just a quarter mile before reaching the Cascade Pass lookout that you should be careful to watch your footing--but we made it, just don't look down. We arrived to the Cascade Pass lookout at about 2:30, there were only 2 other groups of hikers resting there for lunch. We continued on the push up the steep climb up to Sahale and saw lots of marmots on the rocks and a deer resting under tree cover. The rest of the hike is uncovered and we were so thankful for the breeze in the sunny weather. The meadows are in bloom of berry blossoms, but it will be at least another 2weeks before the berries ripen. There weren't a lot of bugs on the hike. Sahale's Arm still has lots of areas of snow patches along the trail, and walking poles would've been helpful for us but we didn't have any. We lost sight of the trail just about 1/2mile before reaching the campsites, and really wish we had the poles to help us trek across the shortcut on the snow that the other hikers ahead took. Instead, we found the trail again and ascended another steep and rocky climb to the campsites. Alas, we made it! Only two other campsites were occupied when we reached Sahale Glacier's base at 5pm. Campsites are secluded from each other and encased by a rockwall with great views from all sites. Found a snowmelt creek for water. We were up in the clouds with unbelievably spectacular views of Doubtful lake, Mt. Rainier, Shuksan, and the North Cascade Mt. ranges (Mt. Baker was hidden from view by a mountain peak).
The wind made it chilly throughout the night, but had a full moon and clear skies that lit up the mountain range all night. Woke up to a pair of friendly mountain goats less than 10feet from our camp who spent about 4hrs visiting between all of the campers. The next day, we headed back at 9:40am and made it back to the parking lot at 1:30pm, taking only short water breaks. There was lots more hikers as well as overnight campers on the trail the next day. Photos will be uploaded soon.

The weather was gorgeous and we spent a wonderful day in the North Cascades. Started around 9:30 AM. The trail to Cascade Pass was snow free till just before the pass, where we encountered a patch that posed no problems. We reached the pass around 12, had our lunch there (interupted by a mule deer) and set for Sahale Arm shortly before 1 PM. On the way we encountered a couple more snow patches, agian, no sweat even for sneaker-wearing people like us. We did not go all the way to the camps, but instead ended up resting on Sahale Arm at elevation around 6500 and soaking in the scenary. People descending from the camps told us the night was warm, 55 Fahrenheit. We started going down around 4 PM. On the way back we saw a few marmots and the deer was still at the pass, munching on some foliage. We reached the parking lot at 7 PM