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 no way through. Perhaps if we had 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 500 feet of roots and rocks and mud 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"" below 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 of mud up Ruth Arm from the Pass).

Weather on Baker was too gusty for backcountry skiing, so we went for a lower hike. The FS road to the trailheads is closed, so you have to park in the lot at HWY542. We walked on the road up to the Goat Mtn. trail, and then started up the switchbacks. Beautiful walk, nice snow, easy hiking in few inches of snow - definitely didn't need snowshoes or anything other than sturdy hiking boots. It was great!

Road 32 had a few deep potholes. Couple spots were tough to navigate w/ low clearance car, but it was doable. High clearance vehicle recommended. Once on the trail, this was nearly as good as it gets hiking. No bugs. Not too hot, yet no clouds obstructing views. Flowers galore. Huckleberries. Mushrooms. Great variety in terrain. Interesting geological features. Fantastic 360 degree views of Baker, Shuksan, Mt Ruth, and several other glacier-adorned ranges of the north cascades. Trail is in good shape. A couple of sections the tread could use repair (it's tilted considerably sideways) but overall nor bad. There were 2 brief sections where water was running on the trail, making it muddy. No snow on the trail. Saw lots of butterflies. No larger game scat. Flowers were out: Aster, Paintbrush, Fireweed, and several others I don't know the name of. Huckleberries (2 varieties) were abundant along the last 2 miles of the trail. There were abundant big mushrooms.

Left the parking lot at noon and headed up Hannegan pass trail to Hannegan camp. Went cross country and angled towards mount Ruth. Not a great idea - slippery moss and heather. Snow was soft on the way up and we had no problems, since we where only in hiking boots. On the way down we stuck to the ridge trail to Hannegan pass. Great day trip 12 miles return. Caution Bear hunters now on trail and ridges, wear something orange. Bugs are out at trailhead but not bad high up. Heather is starting to turn.

After getting the Park pass at Glacier, Maria and I headed for the Hannegan trail on our way to Easy Ridge for 4 days. We thought the 14 miles and 5000+ in was too much for the first day with full packs, so we camped on Hannegan Peak night 1 (sweet spot right on the top w/ nearby water/snow). 2nd day we continued beyond the pass, down and past camps, into the park and down more still, to a sidetrail right shortly to the Chilliwack River. After perhaps a calf-deep ford of said river we found the Easy Ridge lookout trail, no longer maintained. It was brushy at first, but we had our clippers and made quite a dent, as well as other trail improvements. Just at the ridge crest we saw 2 bears at close range. Made it to the greatest camp just at sunset. Day 3 we lounged, enjoying the awesome views. Took a short side trip further up the ridge towards Mt. Challenger- Wow! Noticed a small lake toward Mineral Mountain maybe 500' below. Debated splitting the trip out over the 2 remaining days but couldn't bring ourselves to leave this beautiful place. Day 4, 7 hours and 4 bee stings later we were back at the car. Whew!