White Pass - Pilot Ridge Loop, Meander Meadows & North Fork Sauk River — Saturday, Sep. 5, 2015

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

What a trip! Fall is officially here. First things first for those heading out soon: there is a lot more water on the trail now after all the precip we've had. Only dry sections are between Mackinaw Shelter and about a mile before White Pass, and Blue Lake to North Fork Sauk River. There's plenty between White Pass and Blue Lake right now. We camped out at the trailhead Friday night to get an early start Saturday morning and try to beat the crowds - of course the parking lot was already overflowing and about six more cars arrived before we got out of the tent in the morning. Ended up not getting on the trail until 9am. We hit Mackinaw Shelter at 11:30am and stopped for food and to filter water since there's not much in the way of it until you start approaching White Pass. We made it to White Pass about 3hrs later after leaving Mackinaw and quickly layered up and sat down with the map. Glacier Peak was completely hidden except for one of the lowest glaciers. We met a lot of folks turning back attempting their climb. Given the wind and the cold (and the looming scary clouds) we decided to push on to Indian Pass so we could camp 1000ft lower down. On the way we got caught in a hail storm but it didn't last too long. Fall colors are out in abundance! We got to Indian Pass around 5:30pm and set up camp - there is plenty of water here right now. We woke up to about an inch of snow outside the tent in the morning but it was melting quickly. Looking up at the ridge we were glad to have made the push to Indian Pass - lots of snow up there! After sleeping in and packing up we hit the trail at 11:30am. Soon ran into a Forest Service ranger taking down all the wildlife closure signs, which was great to hear that things are getting contained now! Climbing back up higher we entered a snowy and foggy world, but it was great to finally see so much moisture all around after this very dry summer. When we reached the junction with the Little Wenatchee River Trail (1525) we decided to side trip down to Meander Meadows. Had wanted to climb Kodak Peak but would have been just more socked in fog! Had lunch down at the Meadows and met a crew of 3 guys and their 6 llamas. After lunch we went back to the PCT and then turned off at Dishpan Gap towards Blue Lakes. Once we got to the junction for the low route/high route to Blue Lake we opted for lower - both because of the weather and because we thought we'd have more solitude camping at Little Blue Lake along the lower route. Arrived at Little Blue Lake around 5:30pm and set up camp for the night. Day three we left camp at 9:30am and climbed up the Pilot Ridge trail, keeping our fingers crossed for an opening in the clouds that never came. Beautiful all the same! The Pilot Ridge trail really does seem to go on forever, especially during all the ups and downs before the big descent - we kept thinking we were starting the descent only to climb up again several times. When you do hit the 2.5 mile drop, though, it will be an obvious set of never-ending switchbacks. We had to bushwhack a little to find the trail again after the log crossing at the North Fork Sauk River, but nothing too bad. My friend's knee brace was hurting after all that downhill so we took it slow on the way out and were back at the car by 5pm - we were one of four cars left so I think a lot of folks must have abandoned ship earlier in the weekend with the weather turning. All in all such a beautiful hike - can't wait to do it again when the skies are clearer!!