Easy Pass — Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013

North Cascades > North Cascades Highway - Hwy 20

Got to the trailhead at 11:45am. It's a long drive from seattle! We weren't even thaaat late leaving the house (8:30am). There were only 2 other cars at the trailhead. When we returned at 4pm, there were about 4. First thing to mention, we missed any direct sunlight that this area receives (there was some left at the top of the pass but we didn't get there, not sure if we would have even caught it). I imagine you have to arrive incredibly early to catch it. Bring spikes. I wore crampons and had NO problems hiking the snowy parts of the trail. My friends however did not bring any so we actually had to turn around about a mile or so before the end. Most of the snow on the trail has just packed down into ice and it's hard to avoid the further you go up. Once you approach the pass (I assume that was the final climb up) it gets really pretty though (makes up for the darkness and lack of direct sunlight on this trail). In general, even before the snowy parts, watch out for ice. One of the bridges you have to cross was very slippery and icy (only has rope for a handrail) so slipping there would have probably ended the hike (though fortunately this bridge is at the beginning). I checked the fall foliage box, but I think the only thing that is still at it's peak are the larches. I'm sure those are worth it however. We only saw one, and it was clearly a fluke because there was only one of them and it was only at about 5000ft. WATCH OUT FOR ICE. We saw 2 wrecked cars on the way up and we were warned that there have been several accidents. It's really just this one stretch of highway 20 as you are about 10-15 miles from the trailhead. We noticed that the temperature on the roads was usually about 40F or so, and suddenly in this not particularly more shady region it was 31 with patches of ice and the wrecked cars. It comes up suddenly. Otherwise, if you are driving slowly it's really not that worrisome right now. Overall it was fun, but we'll have to try again next year when everyone has the proper gear!