Squire Creek Pass via Eight-mile Trail — Thursday, Jun. 5, 2003

North Cascades > Mountain Loop Highway

Your April issue contained an article on unmaintained trails.The article on the Eight-Mile Creek Trail stated that the tread is fairly easy to follow.I strongly disagree. This spring the Forest Service has cleared some of the previous years blow-downs.However, there are still three giant blow-downs where the trail disappears and is difficult to relocate.I hiked the trail twice with seosoned hikers last year , and we got off the trail both going up and down every time. This year hiking by myself, I managed to keep on the trail going up. However, coming back down I was unable to locate the trail after the first blow-down ahd spent two hours bush-wacking until I finally regained the trail at the big slab. I would not recommend hiking past the first blown- down until the trail has been cleared.