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Showing all trip reports for the hike "Cascade Pass"

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No image submitted	Cascade Pass — Nov 02, 2009 — charper17 Beware of: Snow on trail Expand report text Hide report text Hiked up to cascade pass today. The trail was 80% snow covered, with up to 8 inches at times.... Hiked up to cascade pass today. The trail was 80% snow covered, with up to 8 inches at times. Also a bit icy towards the top. Overall a good day to hike though, with great views of all the surrounding peaks and the Stehekin valley. Unfortunately, I had to hike the road for 3 miles from the locked gate to the trailhead, despite the fact the road was in good condition all the way to the trail, which is somewhat confusing/annoying.

See a picture of this report's	Cascade Pass, Cascade Pass - Sahale Arm — Aug 23, 2009 — jeremybe Why go now: Ripe berries Expand report text Hide report text To read this report in its original form, with photos, check out my blog: http://dontlookdown.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/cascade-pass-082309/ And, more photos at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/asmugglersbible/sets/72157622010547985/ After... 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.

No image submitted	Cascade Pass, Stehekin River Trail — Jul 28, 2009 — Eric~ Why go now: Wildflowers blooming Beware of: Overgrown, Bugs Expand report text Hide report text We completed a 4-day trip over Cascade Pass and down the Stehekin River to High Bridge. Highlights and special considerations: -Biting... We completed a 4-day trip over Cascade Pass and down the Stehekin River to High Bridge. Highlights and special considerations: -Biting black flies were the worst I have ever seen! Densities of these flies decreased the further east we hiked. -Beautiful scenery of course, at Cascade Pass, and all the way down to Cottonwood Camp in the Stehekin Valley. The section of trail east of Pelton Basin to Cottonwood was VERY brushy in places. Watch your step. -Saw two black bears (one near Park Creek and the other, several miles north of High Bridge) Plenty of solitude once you head east from Cascade Pass. Enjoy!

No image submitted	Cascade Pass — May 10, 2009 — SeanB Beware of: Blowdowns, Bridge out, Snow on trail, Avalanche danger, Road to trailhead inaccessible Expand report text Hide report text Drove down Cascade River Road to MP 20, where it is gated. Decided to walk the last three miles... Drove down Cascade River Road to MP 20, where it is gated. Decided to walk the last three miles before the Cascade Pass trailhead, to see what condition the trail is in. As it turns out, there is still alot of snow on Cascade River Road, especially once you approach MP 22. I ended up turning around a little before reaching the trailhead of Cascade Pass. The snow was getting deeper, plus I had to climb over several avalanche blowdowns on the road. It was nice to see that the area was beginning to look like spring. The trees and bushes in the lower meadows were getting their leaves. I spotted a large black bear in one of the meadows. He appeared to be searching for whatever edible food he could find, such as grass, leaves, etc. Overall, a nice spring-time trip to the North Cascades National Park.

See a picture of this report's	Cascade Pass — Sep 14, 2008 — Kim Brown Why go now: Fall foliage Expand report text Hide report text Cascade River Rd is now closed at Eldorado Creek for the remainder of the hiking season. The road is... Cascade River Rd is now closed at Eldorado Creek for the remainder of the hiking season. The road is to receive a permanent fix of the washout there. It's an additional 3 miles or bikeride to the Cascade Pass trailhead until next year. The fall color is petty spectacular now; it'd be worth that bike ride to the trailhead. Scarlet huckleberry leaves, golden hellibore, orange and red mountain ash. Wow!

No image submitted	Stehekin River Trail, Cascade Pass — Sep 12, 2008 — austineats Expand report text Hide report text Many trips are all good and some are mostly good. Although this falls into the latter category, if you are... Many trips are all good and some are mostly good. Although this falls into the latter category, if you are interested some amazing country and eventual solitude this one has got it. I say eventual solitude because you need to hike the Cascade Pass trial to get to Trapper Mountain (TM, no to be confused with Trapper Peak). The trail up to the pass if well graded and in excellent condition. It grinds on and on gaining <2k in 3 plus miles. The pass has been beautifully restored to accommodate the hordes of tourists who come up for the views. We quickly had a bite and continued east down the Stehekin trail. After a short while one turns of towards Pelton Basin on an equally well maintained trail. There are a few camp sites in the trees that sadly don't get enough light in my opinion. Various trails wander down hill (perhaps the easiest near what is now signed as being for water or the toilet) to the river. Getting to Trapper Lake at the base of TM requires going cross country slightly SE (down river) in Pelton Basin. Once you've crossed the meadow and are heading up hill again look for two stream cuts on the left side of the talus field. The right hand one of these goes up and follows a faint trail through small trees along the edge of the talus field. Once you've gained the high point there is an amazing bivy site and a small pool of water. On our visit there were bear tracks up to the edge of this bathtub sized pool. The trail continues due east to the saddle between Pelton Peak and point 5973'. For all practical purposes the trail ends here. We found the best way down (if you could call it that) was to the far west end of the saddle. We skirted below the rock toes towards gentle snow which will take you southward. One goes up and over a treed bulge and onto the old glacier just north of Hurry-Up Peak. No crevasses to worry about here. This takes you down to Trapper Lake. There is an official camp site about 50m from the west end of the lake. A large rock is suitable for stashing your food on as we saw no less than 7 bears on this trip. Once you crossed this saddle into Trapper Basin you might as well be in Alaska! It is fantastic, big walls, hanging glaciers, braided streams running through a brushy meadow... WOW! We climbed Trapper Mountain (look to cascadeclimbers.org for a trip report of the climb itself, not yet up as of 9-29-08) via the north face. Roughly the route goes up the left leaning snow gully, then across the face at mid height on a ledge and then up the dark cleft to just right of the summit. I wouldn't recommend this climb to anybody but the most experienced. The descent itself took hours of down climbing perilous terrain. Just sit back in camp, enjoy the amazing views and laugh at the fools who climbed that crazy face.

See a picture of this report's	Cascade Pass,Horseshoe Basin (Stehekin) — Sep 06, 2008 — GaliWalker Beware of: Mudholes, Water on trail Expand report text Hide report text September 6th, 2008: Cascade Pass – Horseshoe Basin Mighty peaks, festooned with hanging glaciers – a colorful valley, highlighted by shafts... September 6th, 2008: Cascade Pass – Horseshoe Basin Mighty peaks, festooned with hanging glaciers – a colorful valley, highlighted by shafts of sunshine playfully frolicking with the clouds – a beautiful basin, decorated with frothy, cascading waterfalls and burbling streams…this is what hiking is all about. I last visited Cascade Pass more than 3 years ago. It was time for a return visit; only this time, I would be heading on to Horseshoe Basin, which I had not visited before. My usual ultra-early start did not quite materialize this time: 2 nap-stops on the drive over meant that I was only on the trail by 6:30am. The Cascade Pass trail is smooth and easily graded. Views of the massive north face of Mount Johannesburg are intimidating and humbling; the periodic thunderclaps of ice/rock fall from the numerous hanging glaciers only add to the show. This time round, I was entertained by an even better showing as shafts of sunshine spilling over Cascade Pass played amidst the shadows on the cliffs. The 3.7mi to Cascade Pass always go quicker than expected (a testament to the beautiful trail) and I was soon picking my way through the meadow just short of Cascade Pass. My heart began beating just that little bit quicker, in anticipation of one of my favorite views in Washington. Mellow morning sunshine greeted me as I crested the saddle and there before lay the magnificent show that is the Pelton Basin: a lush green valley, cut by a silvery, twirling stream and walled by gorgeous peaks, separated one from the other by gleaming glaciers. Now on previously unseen territory, I dropped down into the basin, still on a smooth and easily graded trail. Then, after rounding a shoulder of Sahale Arm, I switch-backed somewhat steeply down into the Stehekin Valley – all of the elevation gained on the climb up to Cascade Pass was lost in this drop. Just shy of the low-point I crossed the outlet of Doubtful Lake (up high on Sahale Arm). This was an extremely pretty spot – small, rocky pools momentarily gathered the water before gently releasing it down granite slabs – so I relaxed and soaked in the atmosphere for a bit. Shortly after the crossing of Doubtful Creek I reached the fork for Horseshoe Basin. I took a left here and headed along the (slightly brushy) old, abandoned mining road. A scant 1.5mi later I broke out of the brush and into the basin: horseshoe-shaped, surrounded on 3 sides by towering cliffs, with numerous waterfalls gleaming in the sunshine as they tumbled down the cliffs. Just gorgeous! A flower and rock-strewn floor led me deeper into the basin, before a final talus-field escalator ended the journey at the Lower Horseshoe Basin headwall. The Black Warrior Mine, at the end of the basin, nestled near the base of a frothy waterfall, grabbed my attention – not much of a mine aficionado, I still found it pretty cool and poked around for a bit, before heading back out to admire the waterfalls. I had harbored some thoughts of trying to find a way up the cliffs to the Upper Horseshoe Basin, but was more than satisfied with my day, so didn’t expend any effort on that pursuit. I just sat and enjoyed the setting for about an hour before heading back. Additional Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahiddurrani/sets/72157607183510971 Stats: - Distance: 17.8mi - Elevation gain: 5,000ft - Hiking time: 10.25hrs - Total trip time: 17.5hrs

See a picture of this report's	Cascade Pass — Jul 20, 2008 — PNWTexan Beware of: Snow on trail Expand report text Hide report text We wanted to start out early but ended up at the trail head at about 10:00 in the morning. Couldn't... We wanted to start out early but ended up at the trail head at about 10:00 in the morning. Couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day with all the sunshine and no clouds. There were only a few small blow-downs on the trail, with no real effort to get over them, and two patches of snow to cross. We saw lots of birds, and a marmot on the trail doing their usual songs and whistling. We turned around at the pass and went back down rather quickly, much faster than going up!

No image submitted	Cascade Pass — Jul 17, 2008 — Lunapeople Expand report text Hide report text We took my visiting 13 year old nephew to Cascade Pass for some spectacular North Cascades scenery on this clear... We took my visiting 13 year old nephew to Cascade Pass for some spectacular North Cascades scenery on this clear Thursday. Amazed at how many people were also hiking it. As we expected from the North Cascades NPS reports, there was no snow except two inconsequential patches at the very end of the hike, and a big pile right at the Pass which our five year old enjoyed. Meanwhile our 20-month old toddled around happily so altogether a very nice hike. No bugs either!

No image submitted	Cascade Pass — Oct 08, 2007 — meganerd Beware of: Snow on trail Expand report text Hide report text The road is open only to the Eldorado gate (MP 20) because they've removed the temporary culverts at the washout... The road is open only to the Eldorado gate (MP 20) because they've removed the temporary culverts at the washout a half mile farther. This plus the snow meant that I had the entire N Fork Cascade River to myself today. How often can you say that when it's not pouring rain? The trail was in great shape and predominantly snow free, although the depth increased to about a foot really quickly, and then slowly after that, totalling 1-2.5 feet at the pass. Basically, almost the whole traverse after the switchbacks is on snow. The trail is still defined, so no routefinding issues, and no worries about steep snow slopes. I was VERY surprized though to look up part way through the traverse and see that an avalanche had stopped about 15 feet above me sometime over the last couple days. At first I reasoned that it was probably that warm rain yesterday really loading up the snow (it released from the vegetation), so I continued. Soon, another one, and this one actually crossed the trail but, bizarrely, it was only about 4 feet wide where it crossed. It fanned way out though beyond that, so there was a considerable amount of snow. And then, just before the pass, ANOTHER one which crossed the trail but ended about 15 feet below. Finally I made it to the pass through annoying variable breakable crust, only to be blasted by a strong east wind rushing out to greet that big low pressure system that's coming in. There was a lot of high clouds drifting through during the day, but I got lucky and it became almost totally clear while I was near the pass, and the sun was just about to go behind the ridge (I got a late start). On the way back down, I began to realize what a precarious position I was in when I noticed that the avalanche blocks were dirty, while everything surrounding had a dusting of fresh snow which would have happened last night when the cold front came through AFTER the warm heavy rain. Looking over to the shaded north facing slopes across the cirque confirmed my fears - no avalanches. These slides I was crossing had come down earlier that day because of the sun, which was still shining... I wasn't in that position for very long - in fact I think that a release had actually already happened everywhere that it was really possible, but it was still nerveracking, and I'm still kicking myself for not initially reading the situation better. Funny thing was, it just didn't feel dangerous. I didn't see or hear a single avalanche all day and it's difficult to percieve an imminant threat when everything is static and calm. No excuses though, I should have turned back. So, long story short, I can't really recommend going all the way to the pass right now. The rest of the way down was totally uneventful and I got back to my car right at dusk.

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