I wouldn't recommend hiking this trail. I hiked through hundreds, if not multiple thousands of trees blown down over the trail. On the first 8 miles of trail hiking from Slate Peak / Harts Pass towards the Pasayten Airstrip, you will encounter several, but passable blowdowns over the trail. After you reach the junction with the trail that leads you to Holman Pass (at 8 mi from slate peak), the trail turns into an absolute nightmare to hike. The rest of the 8 miles from the Holman junction to the airstrip are hellish. There is barely any trail to be followed. Be prepared to night hike or start early in the morning if you are going this route.
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Christian Gustafson on West Fork Pasayten River
I'll take a saw here next year, see if I can help.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Nov 10, 2023 08:09 AM
DeluxeMC on West Fork Pasayten River
That would be incredibly helpful! Its a beautiful trail and region otherwise! However, beware; further down into the valley about 2-3 miles away from the airstrip trail junction, some old growth trees are down that form MASSIVE jackstraw piles that you'd need a pretty hefty chainsaw / large crosscut to cut through. I haven't been there since 2022 so there might've been some work done, likely not though. Since it's not part of the PCT or PNT it's been pretty neglected. If you go down there, be prepared to either camp along the trail or walk up to Holman pass and around to the airstrip if you want to avoid the worst section (from holman pass junction to the middle fork pasayten trail junction).
Posted by:
EarthOrca on Aug 04, 2024 01:48 PM
Christian Gustafson on West Fork Pasayten River
I need to finish 505, 537, 561, and 360 first, then plan an outing to descend 472 and maybe scout out 471 while I'm in the area. You can still see the switchbacks north from Point Defiance on satellite images.
The Silky 650 can handle the logs in these photos -- I've cleared stacks like these. And now I have a block and tackle to move large logs, that has always been hard for me to do alone.
Posted by:
Christian Gustafson on Aug 04, 2024 02:59 PM