White Pass to Chinook Pass — Thursday, Jun. 21, 2018

South Cascades > White Pass/Cowlitz River Valley

Ok, first, let’s chat about how to find the trailhead. Having used the map function on WTA before, I decided to let it direct us from Yakima to White Pass. Luckily, about 20 miles in I realized that the coordinates I was being directed to was Chinook Pass, not White Pass, so please keep that in mind. Additionally, the description says the trail is hard to find from Highway 12. This is no lie, especially if you are coming from the east. While there is a horse sign, it is only visible if you are traveling from the West. Instead of just looking for that sign, I suggest looking for the White Pass South sign. This is visible from both directions and unbelievably, the entrance for White Pass North is right across the highway from the White Pass South. Who knew?! I guess there must not have been enough funding for the North sign so they left it up to human reasoning. That being said, once you turn onto the road, it takes about a minute to get to the entrance at Leech Lake and you will see a big sign for the PCT. The trail is visible from there. When you arrive at the trail, beware of bugs. The mosquitos are vast in numbers and love the taste of human flesh. I suggest bathing in bug repellant and bringing an extra gallon or so with you. Now, onto the hike itself. We had intended to do the full trek from White Pass to Chinook Pass over 3 days and set out on the trail last Thursday morning around 7AM. At the time we left there were only 2 other cars in the parking lot and one had been there when we arrived the night before so we assume they were already out on the trail. The second car had shown up that morning and the hiker had hit the trail about 30 minutes before we left. At the head of the trail, there are wilderness permits for the PCT available as well as the general trail information. The first part of the trail is a mild incline with some switchbacks, nothing too brutal though. As you continue, you will notice that the trail is well marked for the PCT and the trail is in wonderful shape. About a half mile in, we met up with the hiker from the parking lot who had turned around. He said nothing other than the fact that the trail “only gets steeper from there.” Once again, the incline is not that bad and the majority of the trail is flat. Everything was grand until about a mile and a half in when we started hitting snow. Thanks to other reports, we were aware that this could be an issue, but had no idea how bad it actually was. The further we went, the worse it got and we lost the trail multiple times. Despite many areas of melt, there were parts of the trail and area in general that were completely covered with snow pack. If it had not been for the PCT Half Mile App, we would not have made it more than 2 miles. With it being a warm day, the snow pack was melting and created the issue of unstable footing and we both fell through many times. Once we reached the lake, it was obvious that we would have to turn around, as the trail was completely underwater in many areas. While we could have gone around, the snow pack and snowmelt had created a safety hazard and detour would only put us right back on a snow packed trail. Therefore, we turned back. On the trek, back we actually ran into the trail steward for that section of the PCT and she informed us that had we continued, it would have been another nine miles of the snow pack. While there would have been a short reprieve after that as the elevation dropped temporarily, on the trek from there to Chinook Pass it would have been just as bad or worse. At that point, she had only run into one thru hiker and they had informed her it was slow going and snowy the whole way. Therefore, the moral of the story is, it is still too early in the year to hike this trail. Give it a month or so, but do not completely write it off. It is gorgeous and so worth it. Just don’t forget the bug repellant.