White Chuck Bench, Round Lake — Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Spectacular lakes, meadows and peaks at a spectacular price. You need strong legs, good trail-spotting experience and a little faith to go here. The various campsites range from pretty good to incredibly good. The trail is not well used; we only encountered four other groups in the four days we spent there. It seems that it once was much more popular than currently. In some places the tread is deeply worn, but plants are beginning to reclaim others. At Lake Byrne, the little signs that tell you to keep off an area for soil restoration have actually worked! (Never seen that anywhere else.) My guess is that the closure of the White Chuck R road, the washout of the bridge and extensive trail destruction in the Kennedy Hot Springs area have made this place a lot harder to get to than it was. Much snow on the trail, but with a little care it can be negotiated, and in a week it will be even easier. Bugs were not aggressive except at Camp Lake. We started Tuesday afternoon and climbed to Round Lake to spend the night. That was plenty of work for half a day. After a late start Wednesday, continued east on the ridge. We were surprised to meet a group of three who had come up from the White Chuck River. (See trail details below for their comments.) Wednesday camp at Byrne Lake. Thursday walked back a mile or so to Camp Lake. The camps are not quite so nice as Byrne, but we wanted to reduce the amount of work to do the next day. At 10:30 pm three headlamped hikers came through our camp. They said a ranger at Darrington Station had told them they could get to the PCT this way, but apparently didn’t mention the EXTREME difficulty of doing it (see below.) They insisted they had to meet a friend who was on the PCT without a tent or sleeping bag. (I didn’t say, “You gotta be kidding.”) They had only a vague idea where they were, or of the geography of the area. I showed them my map (and didn’t ask if they had one, or a compass.) They gave the impression they hadn’t read any trail reports or done any research other than talk to the ranger. Did my best to persuade them there was no way they could get all the way there at night, and they left, I hope to camp at Byrne and start in the morning. We walked out Friday. Near-perfect weather. Clouds rolled in during the evening and cleared during the night. DETAILS: TH to Round Lake Junction: Up, up, up for 3500 feet. Mostly good trail with about 20 blowdowns that are easy to climb over or around. One log must be crawled under. Round Lk: 5-6 nice camps, box toilet in good shape with a fine view. The descent into the basin is about 500 feet vertical and often steep, often poor tread. Junction to Hardtack Lk: This trail shows every sign of originating as a boot trail that somebody dignified with a number and a line on the map. Rough and hard on the legs. The trail is often half overgrown, but never completely. So with a little care, route finding is not difficult, and you never spend more than a few minutes perplexed. There’s a lot of steep up-and-down that isn’t obvious from the topo map. Don’t think that the elevation gain is negligable. Amazing meadows, several camps scattered between ¾ and 1-1/2 miles from the junction. Lots of water available now, but when the snow is gone, there will only be one or two streams (I think.) Sunup Lk: a small alpine lake at 5700 feet in a rocky basin with gorgeous view of Sloan Pk and 1 or 2 camps. The trail leaves the main trail at a small camp, about ¾ mi east of Round Lk junction. Hardtack Lk: one good camp at outlet stream, at least one above, possibility for several tents in the meadow. Camp Lk: one nice but exposed site near outlet stream, other possibilities still under snow. Snow-bergs still on the lake. Byrne Lk: 3 good camps, box toilet demolished :( Awesome view of Glacier Pk. The basin is mostly rocky, and lake now about half covered with snow-bergs. It looks like a picture of Iceland. Byrne to the White Chuck R: We did not hike this, but met a trio that had come up. Their advice was, “You don’t want to go there.” Parts of the trail have been destroyed, so are now a bushwhack. (Lots of destruction on the east side of the White Chuck, too.) White Chuck crossing near former Kennedy Hot Spr: No bridge. We did not see this, but the same trio had searched an hour and a half for a way to cross. Obviously possible, since they did it, but very difficult.