Quick details: 3 nights, 4 days starting at the North Fork Sauk River trail and then heading south on the PCT to Steven’s Pass. About 49 miles total and 9,000+ elevation gain. Bugs were horrible, flowers and views were spectacular!
Day 1: North Fork Sauk to White Pass. road is incredibly rough, you have to take it slow but we saw some sedans up there including a car with a flat tire. The trail to the Makinsaw shelter gains slowly and is fairly nice. There are some campsites right around red creek. The log bridge is missing some of the railings. Makinsaw shelter has lots of nice campsites and this is your last good spot for water until you get out of the switchbacks. The switchbacks are hard. They are fairly steep and short with a few long running ones. We stopped anywhere there was shade and found plenty of good rocks to sit on and catch our breath. Once you are out of the switchbacks, you skirt the side of the mountain in open meadows. So many flowers blooming. It would take too long to name them all but the most exciting was the yellow paintbrush. There are a few streams in this area that you can fill up at. At the streams, there are hundreds of butterflies. Mostly the little blue butterflies. We stayed our first night at white pass camp which has a toilet and water. Bugs were horrible.
Day 2: we left White Pass for Pear Lake. This was a little over 20 miles. The trail is very nice. Lots of easy downhill to Indian Pass. After Indian Pass you gain slowly into Dishpan Gap and Lake Sally Ann. We filled up at Lake Sally Ann and then headed down to Pass Creek. At Pass Creek we stopped for an hour to rest before heading up to Saddle Gap. We filled up with water here. Going down into Pear Lake was steep and very rocky. There is no signage for Pear Lake. Pear Lake had horrible bugs as well even though it was windy.
Day 3 we headed for Lake Valhalla. Going up to Grizzly Peak is not bad but the trail is very overgrown. Many places you have to watch your step. Lots of roots, rocks and marmot holes to deal with and a few areas that the trail is eroding away. Great Views of Glacier Peak up at Grizzly Peak. There is one point that the trail is so overgrown with flowers that you really have to push your way through. Lots of mountain huckleberries taking over the trail, too. We went down to Lake Janus before heading to Lake Valhalla. Lots of people at Lake Valhalla and lots of mosquitos but not as bad as elsewhere.
Day 4: Lake Valhalla to Stevens Pass. An easy day to finish. Trail here is very nice. Flowers blooming but not as many as higher up.
We saw about a dozen marmots, 5 pikas, deer, frogs, hundred of butterflies, chipmunks and Canadian Jays. So many flowers including red and yellow paintbrush, red columbine, fireweed, alpine daisies, Lorax flowers and so on. Mostly just mountain huckleberries were ripe.
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