A lovely 25 mile loop up North Fork Skykomish to Dishpan Gap, south on the PCT to Lake Sally Ann, up Benchmark Mountain and down West Cady Ridge. I did a resupply/trail angeling for friends doing the Washington section of the PCT. Road in is typical condition, potholes make you want to drive carefully but doable in most cars (high clearance helps). Trailhead bathroom is one of the cleanest I've seen in a while. Two other cars in the parking lot at 7:30 am.

North Fork Skykomish River: Starts pretty gentle for six miles or so before kicking up to Dishpan gap at the end. Brushy and muddy in places, definitely glad to be wearing long pants and waterproofed boots. Pretty easy water crossings most of the way, one tricky one at 7 miles or so that I crossed a little downstream of the trail on a bigger log. Plenty of opportunities to refill water if needed. Blowdowns here and there, mostly easy except for a couple that required carefully vaulting. In general, it is a lovely forest walk with lots of frogs. Near mile 8, around 5000 feet, snow appears, but doesn't become troublesome until the last quarter mile where the trail is steepest. I wouldn't have put on spikes if I had had them, it just slowed me a little. Met friends at Dishpan Gap and had the burritos I had brought for lunch. 

PCT from Dishpan Gap to West Cady Ridge Trail: Similar to the top sections of North Fork Trail. Mostly clear, not a whole lot of brush or mud, just sections of snow left and deadfalls. Snow was not too hard as it was never very steep. Some blowdowns are challenging to cross, but most are relatively easy. Dishpan Gap has some nice views both East and West, could see a little smoke from the Pomas fire. Lake Sally Ann is very pretty, still too cold to comfortably swim with snow and ice still covering spots. Was very nice to be able to walk with friends for 7 miles or so and break up the solitude of the other 18 miles. Great views to the East and South for the first four miles, so nice to be outside in the wilderness. Turned off at the West Cady Ridge Trail and transferred the rest of the contents I had brought them.

West Cady Ridge to Benchmark Mountain: Little bit more brushy (in the form of small trees) and snowy than the PCT. Steep in sections too, it's slightly more of a battle to get up to the top. Routefinding is a little challenging across the snow, but trails can be seen in most places. GPS is helpful, especially going up from West Cady Ridge to Benchmark Mountain, but not fully required. Regardless, the views are for sure worth it. Can see a lot of the cascade range, both Glacier and Rainier, and the entire basin behind Blanca Lake to the West. Coming down from the summit was beautiful, as the trail winds through alpine meadows and along the ridge. Many wildflowers could be found here, as evidenced below. Super nice day to be out, clouds came in at around this point and provided some great lighting to enjoy the views. Glad I came down this way, and it was much steeper than the North Fork Trail. 

Garmin logged 25.5 miles and 6200 feet of elevation gain. Saw one other person apart from my friends all day, definitely a great place for some solitude and peace.

I’ve made it up to the Glacier Peak area every year since 2018, but typically have done it mid to late August. Last year I went up in mid-July and enjoyed experiencing the area and wildlife earlier in the season. With snow pack levels reportedly lower this year and an amazing stretch of weather starting on Sunday I decided to burn a vacation day and do a fast overnight trip to the area.  

I’ve done the N Fork Sauk trail to death and have grown sick of both the first 6 miles of it and the long series of gravel roads it takes to get to the trailhead. I also wanted to get some more miles in my legs and get a look at snow conditions on the PCT since I know a bunch of SOBO hikers are starting in the next week. I had a couple options, but I chose the N Fork Skykomish trailhead since that involved the least amount of driving and also left me with some interesting alternates on the return trip depending on time.  

I woke up early and got to the trailhead about 6am on Sunday morning. The hike up to Dishpan Gap on the N Fork Skykomish was beautiful and uneventful. Last November’s bomb cyclone seems to have spared this area, thankfully, and there was only one substantial blowdown that required much work to get over and it’s been there since at least late last summer. The other few blowdowns were small and easily crossed over or under. The river crossing was below the knee and not too tricky with poles.  

Given the SNOTEL data I’d seen this year, I was a bit surprised to see snow completely covering the trail below Dishpan Gap starting at about 5000ft. Route finding was a bit challenging, but I was more or less able to stick to the actual trail by following the GPX file in my Garmin watch. Slight tangent, but having a Garmin with maps loaded has been extremely helpful on many hikes and downright amazing on trips like this where the trail was obscured by snow for long periods of time. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s worth the high cost for someone who wouldn’t normally buy one, but if you were buying one already I’d say the extra money to get a model with built in maps is likely worth it.  

The PCT north of Dishpan still had lots of snow and multiple 500m+ sections of unbroken snow. Traffic on this section has obviously been minimal and with snow melting quickly it became difficult to follow prior hikers paths and again picking the right line through the snow was difficult. I had decided to leave my microspikes at home since I expected much, much less snow than this based on SNOTEL data and June weather. Thankfully most of the slopes aren’t too steep and/or don’t have bad runout, but there were a few sections where I was very careful to kick in secure steps rather than risk finding myself sliding down a steep slope.  

I encountered a couple of hikers who were doing (at least) the whole Section K SOBO. The first was a woman who said she had microspikes and had been mostly okay except for Fire Creek Pass which was apparently very scary. The man I encountered slightly after her did not bring spikes and was having a very bad time. He said he’d fallen down a gully the day before and he was actively trying to figure out how to hitch into a place he could buy spikes. Alas this is arguably the hardest portion of the hardest section to do so.  

I’d originally intended on hiking the Foam Creek Trail over to Glacier Peak basin on my way in and the (now unofficial) Glacier Peak Meadows trail bad to Red Pass on my return, but I was making good enough time that I decided to reverse this to leave myself a bit more flexibility the next day. The snow seemed to mostly be on east facing slopes and for the most part west facing slopes were snow free, so the trail from White Pass to Red Pass was very cruisy. There were, however, a couple ~50 yard snow patches just south of Red Pass that were on very steep slopes and had bad runout. I might have felt comfortable crossing these with microspikes and firmer snow, but without either I was absolutely not comfortable walking them. Fortunately I was able to descend the steep slope and climb around the bottom of one and climb above the other utilizing a mote and some light scrambling.  

The valley north of Red Pass was still 90% covered in snow. Rather than try to follow the PCT I glissaded down a bit and then walked the east side of the valley in an area that’s very tough to traverse once it melts out. Then I cut over to the Glacier Peak Meadows trail and ascended to the basin at the top near the climbers trail. The meadows were all still 90% under snow, but the ascent was actually easier than I was expecting.  

As expected, the basin was also almost completely snow covered, but I was able to find a spot where I could pitch my trekking pole tent. After wandering the basin a bit looking for wildlife I headed to bed just after sundown. As I layed in my tent I heard at least one White-tailed Ptarmigan doing its “scream display” where they fly over their territory giving a really crazy call.  

After a somewhat sleepless, windy night the Ptarmigan woke me up again the next morning just after 4am. I packed up camp, wandered around the basin a bit more and then hit the trail back home. I’d originally intended on returning back through the meadows and Red Pass, but I had no desire to ascend the pass in the snow or repeat those bad sections of snow so I returned to White Pass by going over Marmot Pass and using the Foam Creek Trail. I’ve never loved the Foam Creek trail for it’s constant up/down rocky section, but it was arguably more bearable in this condition. The snow evened things out a bit and the snow bridges were mostly intact and hard. That will probably not be true by the holiday weekend though and I expect it will get quite miserable, especially as the snow bridges start failing.  

 The return from White Pass to Dishpan Gap was uneventful. It was interesting to see how much my footsteps had faded already and how quickly the small patches of snow were fading. Those large stretches are going to be there a good long while I’m guessing.  

At Dishpan Gap I made the choice to continue south 6mi and try to hit Lake Sally Ann and then return via the Pass Creek Trail. The snow immediately south of Dishpan was really bad and I lost the trail for about a quarter mile. The heavy snow on the trail continued for at least a mile and I was concerned I might have to retreat back north or face significant slowdowns, but just north of Lake Sally Ann conditions improved and the trail got a bit faster and easier to follow.  

I took a quick lunch break at a still-mostly-frozen Lake Sally Ann and soaked my shirt to try to cool off. The air was probably only in the 70s, but between the reflection from the snow and the radiation of the rock the trail was cooking.  

The 4 miles between Lake Sally Ann and the Pass Creek Trailhead were mostly snow free, but there were occasional patches where snow had piled up and bent small trees over, blocking the trail and confusing navigation. When disturbed these trees can free themselves and become impromptu catapults attempting to launch whatever is in their way (Ex. My face) into the stratosphere.  

After a pretty boring 4 miles I finally crossed Pass Creek and turned on to the Pass Creek Trail. The signage is confusing here as there’s also a trail to a small campsite and I believe I have a 100% rate of ending up in the wrong place when trying to make this turn and having to bushwack over to the real trail. The Pass Creek Trail was in similar condition to the North Fork Sky trail. A few blowdowns that were easily crossed, maybe one larger one that required a bit more effort, and a lot of smaller debris. There’s a crossing near some small falls that I’ve been able to cross on rocks later in the season that became a short wade this time of year. There are also two river crossings which are typically always wades, but came up to my knees and were much trickier. Not a big deal for an adult with poles, but it’d be a bit sketchy for kids.  

The trail was extremely quiet the whole day and I did not see a single person between the climbers camped near me at Glacier Peak and getting back to my car.  

Day 1: 26.0 miles, 7700ft gain. 

Day 2: 26.01 miles (believe it or not), 2300ft gain.  

-The road to the TH is an average National Forest road, pot holes the width of the road and a drive over a cleared out rock slide. The bathrooms at the trailhead are still closed. 

-The snow doesn't really start until 4200ft. The snow was slushy and heavy and I put on snow shoes from here. There is no trail for now so just keep going along the ridge, you can just follow where the trees are the clearest and it'll work just fine. The top had clear views all the way to Rainier with the peaks all around.  

-Coming down from Benchmark and continuing West Cady Ridge, I followed an animal track across the mountain face until reaching the PCT.  The snow on the mountain face made the push slow, almost felt like I was going to tumble a few times.  

-The PCT is, along with most of this hike, still under considerable snow.  Multiple times I sat down and slid as best as I could, dodging trees and other obstacles.  

-Pass Creek Trail was a doozy for me as I did not do enough research into the trail.  For starters there is no trail until just before the North Fork Skykoimish River meet, and lots of water crossings.  Most are fine, with little streams or, in rare cases, some have a small bridge.  There are three water crossings that do not have a bridge and one with a considerable current, it started to pull me downstream as I was crossing the deepest point which went up to my thighs.  

-The Skykomish River trail is snow free and easy to follow.   

The road was typical forest service road, potholes in places. I made it up in my sedan. Once I got to the trailhead I started up the North fork Skykomish river trail and expected to make it farther up because it was lower elevation.  There was intermittent snow basically from the trailhead.  There was still snow because it was open and able to accumulate more, but also shaded from the sun so it's melting slowly. I only made it a mile before there was too much snow to worry about, I wasn't wanting to navigate snow today. I turned around at about 2900 feet elevation.  I came back and went up the West Cady Ridge trail. I made it much further up this trail, it was in the trees so there was far less snow until I got higher up.  Intermittent snow started at about 3500 feet.  I decided to turn around at abut 3900 feet. There were a few trees down but all easy to pass.  There was one impressive huge douglas fir that was over the trail but easy to get under. Lastly, I went just a few minutes up the Quartz Creek trail just to see it.  There is an annoying tree to crawl under or climb over just a few hundred feet up the trail, beyond that for the next quarter mile or so the trail was fine. 

Did a loop of West Cady, Pass creek and north fork Skykomish, with a short side trip to saddle pass. The loop is about 18 miles. Great fall colors and views from Benchmark mountain.

My travel time : 3:15 hours to Benchmark mountain, another 1 hour to the PCT junction, half hour to saddle peak and back with a short break, then another 2.5 hours back to the TH through Pass creek trail.

The trail is in good condition, some short sections were a little muddy or covered with frost in the morning. Crossing the north fork Skykomish wasn't an issue, I walked on top of few rocks and water was less than ankle deep, so with waterproof boots I hardly got wet. Poles helped a lot for the crossing, as the rocks are slippery.

Not many water sources on the west cady ridge, the Pass creek side of the loop has many streams.

I had AT&T cell reception before and on top of Benchmark peak

While Pass creek is nice, it's basically just a walk in a forest. So in retrospective I would just go from the TH to benchmark mountain and back.  

As for the road, it's all paved until the turn to FS63, then 4 miles of road filled with pot holes, but nothing too bad