I joined a WTA work crew on this trail earlier this year. I realized that our small one day crew could only put a dent in the ton of work this trail needs. I am going to write to Darrington Ranger District and ask to make this trail a priority with their new trail dollars. The trailhead is only fifteen minutes from Darrington, so it's a very popular day and overnight hike. The first mile is abandoned road in good shape. The second mile starts up through lovely forest. As we climbed on, we applauded huge fir trees overhead, and tiny fungus underfoot. The third mile is alot of roots, rocks, and water flowing down the trail. At three miles we reached a bloulder field full of orange, red, and yellow brush. Through the mist and rain we spotted five mountain goats on Three Fingers, above the hanging glacier, and below the cliffs that disappeared into the clouds. As we crossed the boulder field, we looked down into the huge basin of Squire Creek. Scramble up a not so dry wash and the final mile is an ankle deep stream, trail eroded down to bedrock. We reached the pass in time for the snow to start. Fall is here, winter not far behind. Nine miles roundtrip, 2200' elevation gain, trip time was six hours including lunch, pictures, and stopping to listen to Red-tailed Hawks scream as they flew down the valley. Despite this trails popularity, and the peak of the fall color show, a little sprinkle of rain let us have this trail to ourselves on a saturday.

Squire Creek Pass Trail #654 [Map: Green Trails #110, Silverton] is one of those trails that sucks you in to a beautiful area, then sucks you up with absolutely horrible conditions, but you're in too far then to turn back, and probably determined enough that you're going to get the views if it kills you! This is one of those trails. I personally wish the forest service would just abandon it and let it return to nature if they're not going to do something about the upper reaches. The opening three miles are a forest walk supreme, with 200+ year old cedars gracing the pleasant walk on old railroad (') road bed then on good tread up the Squire Creek valley, the creek splashing below you but unseen. Then it turns nasty, turning up several steep switchbacks and up over roots and rocks, at times becoming a climbing scramble, often schmucky, and with somewhat treacherous footing. I attempted to cut drainage trenches for some of the worst spots with boot and hiking staff, just to drain the worst of the water. The large boulder field is reached at 3.5 miles, and most reasonable people will stop here, beneath the craggy and steep walls of Three Fingers, and Whitehorse Mts. to the west. The views here are just as good as from the pass, another 1.5 steep, brushy miles further on, and more open. The only drawback were the black flies, which were pesky and numerous. The weather was outstanding and did compensate some for the bad trail, but this is not one I'd recommend to anyone soon. The views of the east side of Three Fingers can be had with much better trail and a lot less strain in other places in this region of the Cascades.