White Chuck Bench — Saturday, Apr. 19, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Road FS23 is clear all the way to the trailhead. I arrived at about 10:30 and there were three cars parked in the lot which turned out to belong to two snowboarders and a skier who backpacked to the peak and spent the weekend, they said the weather was good and the trip was better. Sunday turned out to be a good day for a hike there was a gentle warm breeze that smelled like spring. The trail goes along nice and smooth past The Wilderness boundary and over the bridge. At the 1½ mile point is a blow-down and soon after is a blow-down and wash-out with a steep drop off. The downed trees can be snaked around and previous hikers have worn a flat little path through the slide. It looks worse than it really is but use caution. Continuing on passed the river and up some switchbacks the trail starts to get patches of snow around 3 miles, at 4 miles the snow is continues but packed enough to walk on. When I reached the log crossing over the creek at 5 miles I started to post hole and decided I was ready to head back. Stopped at a nice sunny beach like place on the way back had lunch and sat in the sun with my boots off for an hour or so thinking of the Summer days soon to come. I’m looking forward to going back in a couple of months and exploring the other trails that connect to the River trail.