North Fork Tieton to Tieton Pass — Friday, Jul. 22, 2011

South Cascades > Goat Rocks

Hiked in to McCall basin this weekend. The road is closed 4 miles from the trail head due to a bridge wash-out. Trail is dry and clear of snow most of the way to Tieton Pass (4800 ft). We camped there, 9 miles from the car. The next morning along the PCT towards Lutz Lake the trail was mostly snow covered though hiking with packs was pretty easy and rout finding wasn't too difficult using the map and topo contours as a guide. We encountered soft snowfields when we popped out of the woods headed for the ridge and Elk Pass. It was difficult to know if we were on the trail or not. Without ice axes or crampons we decided against going above ~6000 ft when the ridge started to get quite steep. Glissading into the McCall Basin was a hoot! We spent the night there. A few of the campsites are melted out and dry. Wildflowers are only just begining to bloom and the bugs were minimal. The trail out of the basin is a little difficult to find in the snow. We tried to leave sticks in the snow for the next group. What a beautiful spot!