Copper Ridge Loop, Whatcom Pass — Monday, Sep. 3, 2018

Spent 5 days on the Copper Ridge Loop with a trip out to Whatcom Pass (9/3 - 9/7).

9/2: Arrived a day early to get backcountry permits and luckily got the sites we wanted.  Stayed in Glacier at the Blue T Lodge that night.  Its behind a pizza restaurant, which was super convenient.  Being the end of Labor Day weekend, they were slammed, but we weren't in a hurry.  Grabbed some breakfast burritos at Wake 'n Bakery the next morning and headed for the Hannegan Trailhead.

9/3: Hannegan Trailhead to Copper Creek Camp, ~9.5 miles and +3100' gain.  As others have said, the road to the trailhead is washed out a few hundred feet before the trailhead itself.  Still plenty of parking though.  Trail is a gradual climb up to the pass.  There's a good spot to grab water maybe 3.5 miles in, just off the junction for the Hannegan campsite.  We continued up the pass and ditched our backpacks behind some trees before taking a day pack to Hannegan Peak.  Lots of blueberries on the way up.  We had a little bit of cloud cover first thing in the morning but by the time we reached the peak it had cleared considerably.  It was definitely worth making the side trip up there - the views are stunning.  We ate lunch at the top and spent the rest of the day going down hill to the Copper Creek campsite, picking blueberries and huckleberries along the way.  We didn't see any bugs that night.

9/4: Copper Creek Camp to Whatcom Pass Camp, ~9 miles and +3000' gain.  Day started out with a pretty easy down hill to US Cabin.  Took a quick break by the river and snapped some pictures.  Continued on to the cable car crossing.  There was a pair of gloves in the bucket which was convenient.  Definitely takes a bit of arm strength to get across (especially at the end) but its not too bad.  We continued until we hit the bridge at Brush creek and took a lunch break shortly after.  We continued towards Graybeal and confirmed that the last water before that is ~0.5 miles back.  We hadn't heard what the water conditions were past Graybeal, so we loaded up there to be safe. It was dry for maybe 1-1.5 miles after Graybeal, but then we started seeing water on a semi regular basis.  There was plenty of water at the Whatcom Pass camp as well.  Note that Whatcom Pass campground is to the West of the pass and not on top of it.  We set up camp and then hiked the rest of the way to the top of the pass.  The sky was pretty clear and we had some great views of Mt. Challenger, the Challenger Glacier and the valley stretching out towards Ross Lake.  After a few minutes here, we headed back to camp to watch the sunset.  No bugs at this campsite either, though the toilet was out of commission due to bear activity.

9/5: Whatcom Pass Camp to Tapto Lakes and Indian Creek Camp, ~9.5 miles and +1500' gain.  Woke up at 6:00 to get back to the top of the pass for the sunrise.  Brought the day pack with coffee and breakfast.  Great way to start the morning.  Valley was much more smokey than it was the night before, but we still had a great view.  After breakfast, we took a trip up to Tapto Lakes.  This is another really cool side trip that's worth the effort if you're not too tired (skipping Tapto lakes makes this a really easy day if needed).  Trail is unofficial, but easy to follow.  It gets steep in a few places but its not too difficult.  We took a quick swim at the lakes to clean up and then headed back to our camp at Whatcom to pack up.  We filled our water bottles and finally hit the trail at about 11:00 for Indian Creek.  The hike down was pretty uneventful.  There was one downed tree we had to drop packs for (and climb under) but that was about it.  There's also a cool bridge crossing just before you make camp.  There were a handful of mosquitoes at camp, so we took our dinner down by the creek which was nice and relaxing.

9/6: Indian Creek Camp to Copper Lake Camp, ~8 miles and +3800' gain.  This was going to be the biggest grind of the trip.  Indian Creek to the river crossing is a bit overgrown, but not too bad.  There are three back to back river crossings you'll need to make (kind of zig-zagging across the river).  Look for the pink markers hanging from the trees.  The water went slightly past my knees in one spot, but I think that was just because of the path I took.  It wasn't moving very fast and was easy to get through.  You should fill up on water here.  We continued hiking up the mountain though, and found one last small creek we were able to pull water out of before we started up the switchbacks for the day.  It's a long climb, but once you start getting above the tree line the views make it all worth while.  We ran across another small creek maybe 5 miles after the prior creek, and then a small waterfall just before the lake.  Towards the top there was a ridiculous amount of blueberries which we spent a while snacking on.  The lake itself is gorgeous and we decided to go for a quick swim after setting up camp.  We then kicked back to watch the sun set on the mountains to the east.  Very few bugs up here.

9/7: Copper Lake Camp to Hannegan Trailhead, ~11.5 miles and +2400' gain.  Spending the last day of our trip up on the ridge was a great decision.  The views seemed to get better and better as we went.  There's a bit of a climb right out of the camp ground, but nothing too bad.  You end up at the lookout a few miles later.  We signed the visitor log and saw that there was a book inside that identified the mountains around us.  As the high point for the trip, we spent about a half hour here just taking it in.  We continued down the trail towards Egg Lake.  We had heard from other hikers and the lookout ranger that there might be a black bear with a cub on the ridge, but we didn't see anything.  When we got to Egg Lake, we again dropped our packs in favor of a daypack and headed down to the lake for a quick lunch.  It doesn't match Copper Lake, but its still nice.  We continued our hike and maybe a mile or so past the Egg Lake junction we started running into a ton of Huckleberries.  We pulled out some extra ziplock bags and loaded them up as we went.  It slowed our progress a bit, so we had to hike a bit faster than planned once we passed Boundary Camp.  The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful.  Some storm clouds began rolling in that afternoon and we had a little bit of a sprinkle (not enough for rain gear).  The last few miles seemed to drag out, but all and all it was a great week.

Overall: Traveling the trail CCW gives a couple sneak peaks at higher elevation (Hannegan Peak, Whatcom Pass) before ending the trip with a stroll along Copper Ridge (where the views are stunning).  Definitely recommend going that direction if you can get the permits for it.  We generally hiked 9-5 each day, taking our time and enjoying the scenery.  I'd also recommend an extra day of relaxation up on the ridge if you have time.  And don't forget extra baggies for berry picking!