Basin Creek — Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009

North Cascades > Pasayten

I hiked the lightly used Basin Creek Trail as a part of a 7 night backpack trip through the Pasayten Wilderness. This trail functions as a critical link for many loop hikes through Horseshoe Basin and other destinations in the wilderness. Much of the trail was badly burned in the Tripod Fire. Trail crews have cleared the route of fallen logs, but it can be hard to follow in places. The path is steep, hot, and eroded: hike it in the cool of the morning if possible. Adequate campsites can be found near Basin Creek at 5600', near where the two fork of the creek come together. Near the top of Topaz Mountain, you leave the burned forest and the views from the trail becomes quite spectacular.