Decided to take advantage of this nice fall weekend to head to North Cascades National Park. After a nice visit with the rangers at the Glacier Service Center to pick up our permit we were on our way! The road to the trailhead had large potholes making the 5 mile forest road slow going.
We set off just after 9am from Hannegan trailhead. The trail was nicely graded with beautiful views of Mt. Ruth the whole climb up. At 3.5 miles we poked into Hannegan pass camps which were quite nice with a peaceful stream going straight through. At 5 miles we passed into the park boundary and would only see 4 more people over the next 24 hours. As we climbed to Copper Ridge we encountered increasingly beautiful views of Baker, Shuskan and the interior North Cascades. The blueberry bushes were all red with plenty of delicious berries still in the bush. We made it to Egg Lake at about 2pm and scoped out all 4 of the (very nice) campsites deciding to settle in the one by the bear box overlooking the late (note there's also a compositing toilet in great condition at the lake). After setting up camp and a fortifying snack break we hiked on to Copper Mountain Lookout. The lookout was closed for the winter but the vistas did not disappoint. We headed back to camp and the wind had really picked up making us glad we were not a Silesia camp on the ridgeline. No one else came to Egg Lake for the night and we enjoyed out "private" lake. Total day stats: ~13 miles, 5500 ft climbing
It was COLD overnight! We woke to partially cloudy skies and small flurries accompanying us on our hike out. As soon as we passed Boundary camp we began to see a number of other parties. After arriving at the car we were surprised to find some evidence of mouse activity despite having no food in the car! Not sure what else we can do to keep those buggers away. Total day stats: ~8.5 miles, 1500 ft climbing
In sum, this was a beautiful fall overnight with solitude, high quality trail/camp condition, and amazing "big mountain" alpine feel. Will definitely come back to this area!
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