Dewey Lake, American Lake, Cougar Lakes, American Ridge & White Pass to Chinook Pass — Monday, Sep. 21, 2009

Mount Rainier Area > Chinook Pass - Hwy 410

Wife and I did a 4 day backpack trip in the Chinook Pass area Sept 21-24. Started out at Chinook Pass at 11am and headed down the PCT to Dewey Lake where we stopped for lunch and a rest break. Trail is in good shape. Most of the camping sites around Dewey are closed for restoration on both sides of the lake. Headed on down the PCT south to Anderson Lake where we planned to camp, but found out it was in the Mount Rainier National Park boundary, so no camping at the lake. There is a camp just about 40 yards up the PCT and off to the left about 150 feet from the trail marked with a Camp sign. We stayed the night at the "Basin Overlook Camp" and enjoyed sitting around Anderson lake until the sun went down. Loads of blueberries and huckleberries. Next morning (late) we headed on down the PCT to the American Ridge trail junction and took it to American lake. A great lake and lots of good camp spots. We got in so early to America Lake (only 50 minutes from Anderson), that we set up camp and then headed off with day packs down to Cougar Lakes. The trail to Cougar Lakes heads off of the American Ridge trail about a mile east of American Lake. From there it doesn't follow either the Green Trails map or my Delorme map on the GPS. It has been rerouted to go up higher on the ridgeline and then drop down several step and rocky switchbacks just above little Cougar Lake. Nearly all the sites at Little Cougar and between Cougar and Little Cougar Lake are closed for restoration. There was only one meadow place that we found that we would have camped in, but there is a horse camp just behind it and that wouldn't be were we'd want to be. The trail to Cougar was rough and very hard to determine as multiple paths go different ways as horse groups have simply chosen where they want to travel and make their own path. The lakes were beautiful, but the trail and the camping were less than appealing. We hoofed it back to American lake by 4 PM and went for a swim to cool off and wash the dust off us. The next day we headed N on the PCT hoping to camp on the far side of Dewey lake (opposite the PCT), but after wandering the complete far side there were no places that were open to camp in except one at the top of the lake were toilet paper, feces, and urine smell permeated the entire place (interesting that site wasn't closed for restoration). So we decided to try Little Dewey Lake and found several great spots for camping on the N side of the lake. Hiked out on Thursday from Dewey back to Chinook Pass in 1 1/2 hours. All in all a great 4 days of beautiful weather, beautiful lakes, and pleanty of fresh air. Only one other party at American lake and one other party at Little Dewey. We had Anderson Lake all to ourselves (along with a herd of Elk that were bugling the entire night long.) All told we ended up hiking 19 miles over the 4 days. Blueberries were all over the place we picked several cups for our oatmeal and packed 2 cups out with us. Fall colors were great and the trail was not too dusty. Very few bugs to speak of anywhere (Dewey had the most mosquitoes, but not bad at all). Saw bear evidence on trail, but no bears.