Round Mountain, Nason Ridge — Wednesday, Jul. 1, 2009

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - East

We hiked the Nason Ridge trail westbound after reaching it via the Round Mountain trail. Our initial plan was Dirtyface but when a 11-year old became part of the crew we knew that was out of the question When we arrived, we found two cars in the lot (it is nice to hike on a weekday). The road to the trailhead was in good shape. A little washboard action in places and some deeper ruts near Nason Creek but definitely passable. We have a truck so it was no issue but even a smaller car can make it if you take it slow. The trail is in good shape. All the blowdowns have been removed and only small amounts of snow linger in the shady spots. Damp trails near the snow but no real mud. The problem today was BUGS (mosquitoes to be specific)! They were killer. Whatever repellant you choose just make sure you have plenty of it. When you walk about 20 hover around you nearly all the time. Stop moving and the relatives are coming to the banquet. If not careful they will carry you home for dinner. DEET did the trick for us but it took several reapplications to keep the little buggers somewhat at bay. Unfortunately we did not make it to the lookout. I could see it looming less than a mile away but those 11-year old legs were done. Maybe he could have made it to the lookout but that would only be half the battle. He still would have had to get back to the car. So we stopped along the ridge at about 6100' and enjoyed lunch seated in a small snowfield. Even though we weren't at the lookout we had a 360 degree view into the Alpine Lakes & Glacier Peaks Wildernesses. It was very beautiful.