Suiattle River Trail, Image Lake via Miners Ridge & Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) Section K - Stevens Pass to Rainy Pass — Saturday, Aug. 5, 2023

I did an overnight backpacking lollipop route camping at Image Lake. The hike in was from Suiattle River TH to Image Lake via Miners Ridge, logging 16mi (17.5 if you count meandering around the lake and camp) and 5,354 gain. The hike out was from Image lake back to Suiattle River TH via the PCT (sobo), which was 21 mi and 1,400 gain. Noted that the PCT section covered was from the junction to Miners Ridge just before Suiattle Pass thru to the junction to Suiattle River TH to Suiattle Road. 

TL;DR:
Most of these miles are forest miles with little to no view. The only big views are from on top of Miners Ridge from the lookout out to the switchbacks before descending back to the PCT, but those views are great and expansive!  Probably the best view I've had of Glacier Peak thus far. There are a smattering of blowdowns along the entire route, with the ridge itself once again being the exception. All the trails are easy to follow and well marked with signage at the junctions. Bugs were annoying, but not the worst. Conditions were a bit smoky and hazy from the nearby Sourdough Fire, but hopefully will pass soon. 

Road Conditions: Great! Paved almost all the way and then becomes well groomed gravel after that on Suiattle Road. There are a handful of potholes but nothing wild, and a few dips in the road that sneak up on you. My car did randomly skid out just before the bridge to Downey Creek, but I didn't encounter the same issue driving out, so not sure if I just caught something just right to feel like I was driving in snow for a second or what. Pit toilet and bear safe trash receptacles are at this TH as well as parking for stock vehicles. NW Forest Pass is required. 

Trail Conditions: 
Suiattle River Trail: In great condition. Very runnable and hard packed pine type trail. Typical river trail that undulates with gradual grades parallel to the river. (Reminder that a river trail does not always = direct access to the river). There are a couple blowdowns, but fairly easy to get under or around. There were 2 trail crews working here when I passed by, so thank you to those crews! No real views here, but some really great water sources and cool waterfalls/rock features and streams flowing down into the river. 

Miners Ridge: In good condition. A few more blowdowns here than Suiattle River, but again, nothing bad or too hard to get by. Still wooded and hard pack trail, but a little more narrow. Still runnable in terms of tread and terrain. The grade is fairly gentle the first half, and gets steeper after the camp junction to Miner's Cabin, but still nicely graded. The ridge itself is impeccable trail and views! There's a small brushy section as you start the switchbacks after Lady Camp, but trail is still super easy to follow.  Note: if I did this again, I would hike the upper stock trail to get the views of image lake and glacier peak, then loop back around to head down to the backpacker campsites. I went to the campsites first, and then did a lot of doubling back and around to see the lake views and it's pretty steep getting in and out of there. 

PCT: In good condition. Definitely more blowdowns here than Miners Ridge or Suiattle River Trail. All forested trail with little to no views. You do have a mountain view at one switchback, and are down by the river at one point, but mostly easy quick shaded miles. Unfortunately it looks like trail crews have not gotten to this section as I encountered the same blowdowns this time last year on the trail. You can read that report here: https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2022-08-22.9809098447 (It would be day 5 from Suiattle to Cedar Camp), and from the word of other hikers, the south side of Suiattle still has the same blowdowns as well, so nothing new, and was anticipated. 

Animals/Bugs: I did not find the bugs too bad in general. The conditions were muggy, sluggy, and spider webby. The worst of the bugs was at Image Lake, in the immediate lake vicinity. I don't think they are mosquitos, but we'll just call them "water bugs" were all over the lake and sat on top of the water, which dissuaded me from dipping in :-(. Aside from this area though, the campsites themselves were fine. The bugs that were most problematic otherwise were "eye bugs", again, don't know the technical name, but it's those tiny little bugs that fly into your eyes. I came away with a handful of mosquito bites which is pretty par for the course. Animal sightings were just banana slugs, pikas, chipmunks, and marmots!

Water sources: I'd say you've got water about every half mile to a mile along this whole route. The driest section is from miners ridge to image lake, and maybe a 1.5-2mi past image lake. Really nice flows and creeks tho and was never hurting for water. It is a bit of a slog from the camps to the lake, so collect first if you don't want to haul back and forth.

Other: I was once again able to pluck a few ripe thimble berries, as well as huckleberries! They are just starting to come in and the ones I took were just before peak ripeness but still delightful. Lots of cool wildflowers, and some I'd never seen before near the lake (this dark blue/violet colored flower). Was not too crowded, there were maybe 4-5 other campers around, but still felt pretty spread out. There are 2 pit toilets at Image lake, the upper has the better view, but the lower camp one seems less frequented. Both in good conditions though. 

Question/Thoughts:
Seeing as there were still so many blowdowns, and I passed several trail crews, I am genuinely curious to know, why is it that trail crews just work from first to last in terms of obstacles, rather than most problematic, then out? When I did a log out, we just started as the first one and worked our way down the trail, but from my experience this just leaves the first few miles of trail in pristine condition, and the rest of it neglected or rough, which was the case here. I know middle miles are harder to get to and more remote, but I had (maybe naively) assumed some crews would have cleaned up some of the larger blowdowns on the PCT sections since it's such a popular trail. I'd much rather a crew skip a blowdown that you can easily step over or walk under (upright), and tackle ones that requires strength, strategy, or an alternate route to get around, and come back to the smaller ones after. Anyone have insight to this method for clearing trails? Genuinely curious to know. :-) 

Happy Trails!