This was a great hike. No snow on the trail until up on Ruth Arm, and even then only a few patches. The views from the pass are nice, but continuing onto Ruth arm is well worth it. The only bad part of the hike is the trail climbing the hill up to the arm from the pass. This is basically a vertical trail in a rocky trough. No idea why there aren't switchbacks up this hill. Coming down it was even worse, so this isn't recommended for the faint of heart. We continued up to the summit of Ruth, but that involves glacier travel and shouldn't really be done without crampons and an ice axe. The views from Ruth's summit were perhaps the best I have ever had, though. Views ranged from Canadian peaks all the way south to Rainier, but the east side of Mt. Shuksan was the highlight, being only a stone's throw away.

Hannegan Pass, Copper Ridge #674, Egg Lake Started in the rain Friday morning – should have waited out the weather and left on Saturday, but then I’d never have got a campsite under the Park reservation system. It was sort of nice walking in the drizzle and it kept me cool, but the first part of the trail isn’t much fun: head high Cow Parsley, Salmon berry and Blueberries, all soaking wet, and the trail muddy, and rocky as a stream bed. However, the engineering feats at some stream crossings are much appreciated. Once in the trees the trail becomes very pleasant, and the wedding cake layers of volcanic tuff from the old Hannegan caldera (Geology of the North Cascades by Tabor and Haugerud) were visible even in the rain. At Boundary Camp there was a little site under the branches of a spruce, perfectly dry. Bears were grazing in the meadow, hopefully within the Park boundaries. I had some misgivings about being out on a trail in bear hunting season with trigger-happy teenagers on the loose, so brought a fluorescent pink vest and yellow hat for safety. On Saturday the storm clouds and fog still filled the valleys and swirled around the peaks, making for some exciting views as the trail meandered up and down along the ridge. By afternoon it was clear enough to see everything from the lookout, where the Ranger girl served us all tea before going off on her rounds to check permits. Egg Lake has only three established campsites, all built up with stones like Inca ruins. The better views are from Silesia Camp on the ridge, but there’s only a snowbank for water. The Park has closed a lot of lovely sites; hopefully when they are re-vegged they will reopen them. It’s a long way to walk to Copper Lake to the next available campsites. Sunday was crystal clear with spectacular views all around. The trail out was long and hot, not a place to be if you are a Sunday walker with no hat and a furry dog.

Myself, my brother from Boston and son from LA made an attempt (sans Mina this time) on Mt. Ruth via Hannegan Pass in what turned out to be probably the worst weather of the summer. Rained all night for 3 nights, and kept raining the 3rd day. Evening of Day 1 I made it up to the first lower summit of Hannegan Peak - a very nice and easy trail through mostly open meadow from the Pass. Was too late to go on up to the summit that evening, but it looked easy. Day 2 it wasn't actually raining and we thought it was our chance so we set-out for Ruth. From Hannegan Pass there are 2 boot-beaten paths out onto Ruth Arm, and here's the thing: DON'T take the right-hand one across the west face. It's a fool's trail that ends in cliffs and steep scree and trees. We scrambled around on it and got way up there but found now way through. Perhaps if we dropped all the way down to the base of the cliffs... but we gave up and went back to Hannegan Pass. From there we climbed an almost-vertical 1000 feet of roots and rocks to reach a bench at the base of Ruth Arm and traversed to the left (east side) around it and found ourselves facing Ruth head-on! Only trouble was, we were 2 1/2 hours delayed by our scramble ""fun"" and it was now too late to try climbing Ruth. Clouds were never above halfway up Shuksan, so the views were limited anyway, and at this point we satisfied our urge to climb by traversing back up onto the top of Ruth Arm. Saw a group of ptarmigan and got some great photos of them. On the way back we noted fine camps in the Hannegan Pass saddle (a small pond supplies water) where we will go next time, rather than the lower ""Hannegan Camps"" on the west side of the Pass, to save time! The scenery on the approach trail was truly spectacular, open at least half the time with immense granite buttresses of Mt. Sefrit across the valley and waterfalls roaring. Really, if it hadn't been for the weather and that one wrong turn we took, it would have been an absolutely excellent trip. Trail is in great shape (except for near-vertical stretch up Ruth Arm from the Pass).

Started the trip in a motel in Bellingham in order to facilitate an early arrival at the trailhead. Of course, breakfast and dallying conspired to get us there later than we had planned. The road up is in good shape with only a couple of moderate sized potholes. The hike up was quite pretty, if a bit wet due to rain the night before and some brushy sections of trail. Views are great within 15 minutes of hitting the trail and improve as you make your way up the valley. We stopped at Hannegan camps at about 3.5 miles, just before the pass, to set up camp. Lots of good, established sites here as well as a common cooking area with a good hanging tree. The next day we headed up to Hannegan Peak, another mile up, up, up beyond the pass. Trail is well established, signed and numbered (our vintage 1970's trail guide listed it as a scramble). The 360 degree views from the top were outstanding. There is a nice little campsite (one maybe two small tents) that would be a wonderful place to spend a night in fair weather. After lunch and a couple hours of gawking we headed back down. The hike out the next day brought a few light showers that kept us nice and cool. Mother Nature was nice enough to save the downpours for later in the afternoon when we were safely off the trail and scarfing burgers in Glacier. Great hike with beautiful views and lots of options. Hannegan Camp makes a great base for day tripping to Hannegan Peak, Copper Ridge, the Chilliwack Valley or Mt Ruth.

Road bumpy but easily navigable. Trail clear of snow and wildflowers out, large patches of snow still across trail on the ridge. Mosquitoes were annoying on the ridge and lake, but bug free at lower elevations on the way up and down. Water available at bottom of snow fields on the ridge and at Egg lake. We camped at Hannegan camp before the pass the first night and Silesia camp on the ridge the second night. This trail is popular, expect to camp with others at established camps.