Cutthroat Lakes via Walt Bailey Trail — Monday, Aug. 16, 2010

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

I did this as a 3-day backpacking trip with a friend and 4 kids ages 8-12. The trail is great, rustic with lots of ups and downs and a few blowdowns but nothing painful. The tarns/lakes themselves are spread out over perhaps a quarter mile of rolling hills; allow some time to find your favorite campsite and swimming site. When we visited, many of swimmable tarns/lakes were swimmable but a few of the deeper ones were definitely better for this purpose. The hike up took us 3.5 hours with plenty of stops. After reaching the first lake or two, you’ll come to the fork shown in the photo. The right fork goes to several more lakes and campsites, including ours. The left fork goes to the biggest lake, also pictured, and eventually reaches some big rocks, a rarely-used helicopter landing site, and a scramble up Bald Mountain (which my friend enjoyed but said might be dangerous for the younger kids). There were lots of berries arround our campsite and even more all along the trail to Bald Mountain. We saw a couple of people each day (this was midweek) doing the dayhike to Bald Mountain, but no one along the lakes on the right fork, and while there were some established campsites and fire rings, there was no evidence of recent use. Critter alerts: - A moderate number of flies, horseflies, and mosquitoes were around all the time. The mossies swarmed us mercilessly around dusk. - There were a couple of hornet (bee? wasp?) nests next to the trail, both on your right as you ascend. The first was about 2 miles from the trailhead, just past the boulder field and just before the start of the switchbacks up to the lakes, on a fir sapling leaning over the trail. It was safe to walk right by it. The second was almost at the fork, lower to the ground, and harder to avoid, so we detoured a few feet through the brush. - We saw a mama bear and cub a reasonable distance away on the way down -- precisely where we were headed. Fortunately, and not surprisingly, our loud singing kept them away.