Cathedral Rock — Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022

Arrived at the trailhead (Cathedral Pass #1145) at about 5:30am and took a nap until light enough to hike without a headlamp. The road was in excellent condition, unlike in years past. The Scatter Creek ford was dry - first time I have ever seen that. Two vans in the parking lot, both apparently over-nighters.

I started up about 7:15 behind one of the van people and his dogs. Intending to get to at least Peggy's Pond and reconnoitering the path to Circle Lake. The first stream just past the trailhead had a little water in it, and the Cle Elum River was flowing, although low. The trail was quite dusty. Lakes and tarns were a bit low. Fall colors were nice, but a bit muted.

The trail to Peggy's Pond (#1175) was tricky. Narrow gravelly ups and downs, narrow rocky sections with enough exposure to be worrisome. One has to mind one's footfalls here, but it is doable, just look over the tricky parts and think it through. The terrain the traverse takes to Circle Lake from Peggy's Pond was clearly visible. It looks like higher is better to avoid cliffs and a deep ravine. The guys with dogs said as much - "traverse under the rock face". Approaching Peggy's Pond the trail splits. The straight ahead branch had rocks laid across it, but the ascending branch was extremely loose scree/dirt and in places deep powder. May wash out pretty badly when it rains.

Only one person camping at Peggy's Pond. I saw only two other hikers in the area, the guy with dogs returning to the trailhead and one who was heading for Mt Daniels. The pond was a little low, but the water was a pretty blue-green color. I started up the boot track to Mt Daniels and Circle Lake, but turned around before getting very high. Some people do either of those options in a day, but it was clear that for me either way would have to be an overnight with Peggy's Pond as a base camp. Looks like a lot of great opportunities for exploring.

It was around 32 degrees when I started, but warm later in the day, particularly out from under the trees. No heavy smoke, but light smoke in the distance to the east and southeast, and it looked like heavier smoke to the northwest over Deception Pass. I only passed two other hikers on the way down. Coming home over Snoqualmie Pass, clouds of smoke were drifting east over Keechelus Lake, and from there to North Bend the smoke was heavy enough to obscure all of the peaks and ridgelines. Sure will be glad to see it rain this coming weekend.