Cady Ridge, Blue Lake High — Monday, Aug. 11, 2008

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - East

Perfection can't be planned, it just has to happen naturally. In this case, it took the form of a three-day backpacking trip for man and dog in the Henry M. Jackson wilderness. The weather Sunday was taylor-made for doing a chunk of elevation gain, cloudy, 45 degrees at noon, windy as heck, and the Cady ridge trail sure delivers on the gain part. Up and up and up it goes, first on long, gradual, annoying switchbacks, then onto the spine of the ridge and steeply up, some sections very steep. Finally, some four miles from the TH, the beauty begins: open meadows, views, huge fields of lupines and other flowers, a ridge-running trail, and then it gets better. Daisy and I took a long break lying in the grass next to a sweet lupine field with a stunning vista, then continued hiking this most excellent trail, first on one side of the ridge then the other, and back again. I especially enjoyed the marmot colony built right into the trail, with its lively and noisy inhabitants. We had started at noon, so it was six pm by the time we reached the PCT, having done six and a half miles and twenty-seven hundred vertical feet. The campsite right near the junction, with the great view of Glacier Peak, was empty so we camped there. It was very cold and windy, threatening rain that never happened, so the pup and I hit the hay early, around nine pm. When I got up to visit the bushes at two am, the skies had cleared up and the moon lit up Glacier Peak most excellently. Monday morning was so fresh, so bright, so clean, it was like a miracle. The air smelled of flowers, snow, and sun-drenched pine needles. After a leisurely morning, the pup and I hit the trail at eleven am and went south on the PCT to Lake Sally Ann. Lots of snow there still, but the fine campsites were all melted out. I snapped a few pics, and it was back north on the PCT, up some gratuitous switchbacks to Ward's Pass. There we encountered a few mosquitoes, but they stayed when we left. The weather was sunny, cool, breezy, absolutely perfect for hiking. The stroll over to Dishpan gap was awesome as always. We took a soft left onto the Bald Eagle trail and reached a grassy mini-pass overlooking the source of the North Fork Sauk river, with great views of White Mtn/Pass, Red Pass, and GP itself. We also had a good look at the smoke from the Foam Creek fire. I decided we would camp right there Monday night, so we stashed our packs nearby and continued along the Bald Eagle trail to the Blue Lake High Route trail. That trail is super cool, going up a slope that at first appears to be just a cliff, especially near the top. But the trail judiciously switchbacks and follows the contours of the slope, picking its way, eventually finding the top of the knife-edged ridge before plunging down to beautiful Blue Lake far below. The views from up there were sweet indeed. Blue Lake is a deep indigo color, with massive ice bergs floating in it, and Johnson Mtn looming over everything, with its vertiginous summit trail clearly visible. There were also stunning vistas to the south and east, row upon row of mountains and valleys alternating into the hazy distance, with massive volcanoes brooding in the background. I had planned on scrambling up to point 6562, but time and water rations made that a no-go. Back at camp, we watched the sun set, the alpenglow fade from GP, and the smoke from the FC fire turn a fitting burnt orange. I tried to stay up to see some of the Perseid meteor shower, but ended up asleep before it got going in earnest. Tuesday brought a complete change: heat and bugs. They were voracious and insatiable. Mosquitoes, two kinds at least, plus the dreaded black flies, tried to ruin our day but ended up failing in that. We stopped moving only in the windiest spots and for short intervals. That coupled with generous applications of bug spray to my clothing and to Daisy's pack kept the buggers somewhat at bay. High clouds filtered some of the hot sun, and the strong breezes were a godsend. Without that it would have been too hot to keep moving but too buggy to stop. We hiked out the way we came, enjoying all over again the ridge-running and the flowers on Cady Ridge. We got back fully exhausted, dusty, dirty, covered in sweat, bug spray, sun screen and pine tar, but absolutely euphoric nonetheless. It was one of those trips that strengthen the body, uplift the spirit and cleanse the soul. More pics can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/slugman.