Pilot Ridge, Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass & Round Lake — Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Nice 4 day (3 night) loop in Glacier Peak Wilderness. We left a bike at Lost Creek Ridge trailhead to shuttle us later and started at North Fork Sauk trailhead. Headed up Pilot Ridge which can only be described as a slog. Others on the trail were in agreement. Set out at 1 and took until 6:30 to get to Blue Lake. Good thing the views were excellent. Next day was Blue Lake High Route to PCT. Then to White Pass, Red Pass and camping at the lovely (and busy) Glacier Meadows. Probably could add a few miles to this itinerary but it was a nice place to linger. Third day was down to Junction with the old Whitechuck River trail where we were surprised to see our intended trail abandoned. Thankfully a sign made it clear another option existed a bit up the PCT. When we made it to the new trail, ominous signs indicated a hard road ahead. ("hell trail" I believe was the graffiti) however it's not that bad! Though the trail is covered in blowdowns and has even cleaved away at one point, it's always easy to follow. The crossing was also fine for us, and wayfinding was not too bad. There is a sign on the west bank that may have been an arrow to the old hot springs but helped us find our way to the trail with little bushwhacking. Not sure what it's like going the other direction. The trail up the other side is steep and a slog--unmaintained with lots of blowdowns (that's the real hell trail). But emerging finally at Lake Byrne makes it worth it. Lost Creek Ridge is rough going when your already tired but very scenic. Lots of up and downs not following any clear contour. We camped on a ridge above Round Lake at an established site. Bummer when a pair of dudes showed up and camped on the trail a few feet from us at midnight. You can imagine how inflamed their sense of hiker comraderie was when I asked them to tamper down the party at one am. And amazingly, we got round 2 of being aparty to their male bonding when their alarm went off at 445am. What a bunch of cool adventurous guys. Trail down to Lost Creek trailhead was much more graded than Pilot and only took a little over 90 minutes.