Suiattle River Trail, Suiattle Pass, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass, Railroad Creek, Miners Cabin & Image Lake via Miners Ridge — Monday, Jun. 22, 2015

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

On Monday we started at Sulphur Creek campground on Suiattle River Trail (784). We walked this trail and the PCT for a total of 10.5 miles gaining 1200 ft along the Suiattle River to the point where the PCT heads north along Miners Creek. There were a number of camps all along the Suiattle River including one huge one at Canyon Creek where a WTA crew was based out of. There was also a lot of water all along this trail. We stayed at a nice camp at the base of Miners Creek. No bugs here at all. On Tuesday we hiked 7 miles, gaining 2500 feet up the PCT along Miners Creek, crossing Miners Creek eventually camping at Suiattle Pass. The camp was just west of the junction with trail 795. This was a relatively short day. The camp at Suiattle Pass was nice but was quite buggy. We had flies during the heat of the day and then when it cooled off, the flies went away but the mosquitoes came out. There was also a nice big camp where the PCT crosses Miners Creek along the way. On Wednesday we left our big packs at Suiattle Pass and day hiked to Lyman Lake. This was about 5 miles each way. We were on the PCT to start with then got on the hiker trail 1279 for a short time. We then followed what I think is called the Railroad Creek Trail (1256) over Cloudy Pass to Lyman Lake. This wasn’t as easy trail but it wasn’t really hard either. You had to be careful crossing through a boulder field but that was about it. The trail getting over Cloudy Pass was in good shape. Lyman Lake and the entire basin (meadows and glaciers) were gorgeous. As advertised that entire area had many mosquitoes. We hiked along Lyman Lake to the Upper Lyman Lakes along trail 1256B crossing a foot log that made both of us and our dog a little uneasy as it was relatively high above a very fast flowing Railroad Creek flowing out of Lyman Lake. There were a number of marmots in the meadows around Lyman Lake. After we got back to our camp Suiattle Pass we had time so we decided to move camp. We hiked 1.6 miles west along trail 795 to trail 785 and then up 0.8 miles on 785 to Lady Camp. This was a gorgeous place. The first camp we came across here was set up for horses but just a couple hundred yards further were a number of places for hikers to camp in the meadow. There were quite a few both marmots and deer around this area. On Thursday we walked along trail 785 past Image Lake then down Miners Ridge. The trail from Lady Camp to Image Lake was very pretty with deer and marmots along the way. The trail from Image Lake down Miners Ridge was not as nice. The trail was along the side of a steep hill side and was narrow and overgrown over a large portion of the trail. We were told by the WTA crew and a couple people from the forest service, that were also working on the trail, that the trail up Miners Ridge to Image Lake was going to be worked on. After leaving Image Lake, this trail was very dry, even this early in the year. We made it down to the PCT and then walked along the Suiattle River for a few miles, staying the last night in a camp along the Suiattle River. The last day, Friday we walked the last 5 miles back to the car.