White Pass - Pilot Ridge Loop — Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020

A group of late 20s adventurous women set out to do the White Pass-Pilot Ridge Loop on a Thursday. Make sure to park at the North Fork Sauk Trailhead--we met some sad folks who had not parked here and started a bit down the road, leaving them with about 3 miles to walk to get to their car at the end of their loop. Getting a late start from Seattle, we decided to camp at Red Creek Campground the first night about 4 miles from the trailhead. The campsite is expansive and has easy access to water. Met some COVID deniers there who were friendly nonetheless, but we hightailed it out of camp in the morning and lost them in our dust! 

After getting up some gnarly switchbacks and emerging from the forest, we were treated to some pretty awesome mountain views. We were pretty socked in, so no views of any gargantuan peaks. We also had our first glimpses of marmots, one of which stepped out on the trail in front of us for a bit after leaving his perch on his lookout rock. We ran into lots of fresh blueberries, a staple throughout the loop. 

Once you're above the tree line (mostly), the trail flattens off. White Pass campground came into view, and we hustled down there since we had been caught in some rain and wanted to get dry and take a well-deserved break after huffing it up 3000 feet. We considered hiking to Indian Pass campground another 5ish miles away, but decided against it since it was very windy and wet. Because we had done the ascent to White Pass in two days rather than one, we were the first to campground other than a PCT thru-hiker. We sat bundled in our warm gear greeting the folks who did the trek in one day. It seemed like the campsites got pretty full by the end of the day, and one group did set up in full view of the toilets. But, it appeared that there was enough space for everyone. 

The next day the clouds had cleared and the sun peaked out, illuminating giant valleys on the opposite side of the campground as we emerged back up on the ridge. The hunt for Glacier Peak views began. We were treated to huge open fields of wildflowers of lupine (and bees, one group member got stung) and awesome views. Once you're up on the ridge, you live the good life of a relatively flat trail and awesome things to look at.

Other reports do a better job of describing how to get to Blue Lakes. I will add that I almost missed the turn off--the sign requires you to walk down the trail a bit and I almost continued on my way down the PCT. We suppose this was Dishpan Gap, although we didn't see any trail markers. It's a sharp right turn almost backtracking right after you see the small but sweet campsite overlooking the valley below nested in some trees. The sign clearly says "Blue Lakes" and I believe Bald Eagle Trail. Once we made this turn, we passed a clearing about .25 miles up the trail and saw Glacier Peak through the clouds! It's astounding. We sat there for about 30 minutes staring at it. 

When we were staying at our first campsite, an older guy chatted with us about the sketchiness of Blue Lakes High Route and spooked us. However, we ran into some other well-prepared folks who seemed confident about it so we decided to do it. I am pretty seriously scared of heights and tend to trend towards taking the long way vs. taking the short, steep, spooky way, but I have to say the High Route was no problem. It is definitely physically strenuous--you go up rather quickly and it's pretty exposed, so trekking poles helped. The "knife-edge ridge" described in a report I read on the Mountaineers site is only about 4 steps and then you're back on normal trail. At this time of year (late August) there was no snow on the trail and it was easy to navigate. We did a bit of surfing down scree, so again poles are helpful. Overall, without the snow the high route was definitely the better option for us and wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be. We had one group member take a tumble off the trail right as we entered the campsite, so just watch your step (she pulled herself back up in a very Mission Impossible way). 

The latrine is hard to find at Blue Lakes but it exists! We even think there might be two separate ones. Just follow the trails back behind some of the taller trees and you will find it. We camped on the southern part of the lake and didn't have lake views from our campsite, but had some great mountain views. 

Despite this day being about 10 miles and including the high route, our last day from Blue Lakes to the TH definitely felt like our longest. We left camp at about 9 am and didn't get to the TH until about 5:30. The trail gets a little up-and-down as you get about 2 miles away from the switchbacks going down. Often we felt we were on the final descent only to start climbing again. No complaints as we had views of Rainier and even Mt. Adams. After your final descent back in the forest, you enter the land of switchbacks. My knees were squawking, but the poles saved me. We did the river crossing without event, although lost a much-loved trail hat to the river. The crossing was a big fallen tree over some relatively fast-moving water, which provided a final adrenaline rush. After passing two campgrounds, you'll meet up with the same trail you walked in on--take a left to head back to the parking lot and snag your end-of-trip beer from the cooler.