Cutthroat Lakes via Walt Bailey Trail — Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Some of the hiking books call this a moderate hike. Since the elevation gain and loss is prevelant and for every two switch back there are steep stair step up 20 yards before for the next switch back, I think its more than moderate. My legs were screeming by the end of the day. Our goal was to Cutthoat Lake. The trail is in decent condition. There were some areas where the trail was at steep locations and begining to break away. Minimum bugs. Some scat ,probly from a cat. Saw a frog. A sweet spot of the cascades. Surprisingly only one of the tarns showed the effects of the dry summer. About an 8 mile round trip to the lake and return. Well worth the climb