Squire Creek Pass via Eight-mile Trail — Friday, May. 31, 2019

Finished up helping with the diversion from yesterday.

Rested for a bit after the maintenance crew disbanded, filled up my water bladder, lightened my pack, then started the hike.

The route to the rock climbing area is properly brushed and nice, but unstable trail due to the organic tread. It’s also really rocky and rooty in sections.

After the rock climbing area, the trail condition gets worse; muddy, bushwhacking mess, with steeper rooty steps, and the tread narrows down to goat trail width. There are deep streams to cross too in areas; choose your rocks wisely when crossing. To top it off, there are 15+ blowdowns after the wilderness boundary, so chainsaws aren’t allowed :/.

I hit snow at 3.7k’, which persisted to the pass. In addition to the beforementioned conditions, there are multiple stream crossings across waterfalls and water is flowing down the trail in spots, over lace deep.

All this being said, the view of Three Fingers, Bullen, Whitehorse, Higher Squire, Helena, and Glacier was sooooo worth the climb. I’d definitely like to do Higher Squire when there’s less snowpack on it (avalanche concerns because route was over 35 degrees) and when I have more time.

The ascent took me 2.5 hours; the descent took 2.25 hours.