Unique and awesome hike. Snow free and some nice fall foliage. The nearby mountains do have a little bit of snow, though, and that makes them much more striking. Lots of little streams trickling down bare granite. Plenty of solitude. The scenery hints at the Adirondacks in the fall. The trail is a little rooty and rough, kind of like Mailbox Peak, but the problems are less frequent and not as bad. There are a couple of blowdowns that were challenging for my wife, as she had our daughter in a front carrier. There were a couple of mud-holes, and they were usually pretty stealthy. They'd look like regular ground, but you could sink in a few inches. Generally they were short and it wasn't too hard to step over them. There were a few places where the trail could use brushing. Navigation wasn't an issue, but you had to move the brush out of the way with your hands, shoulder, or chest because there wasn't enough room on the downhill part of the trail to walk around the brush. These issues affected only small portions of the trail, so I wouldn't let them prevent you from doing this hike. The road to the hike is in pretty good shape, though it's narrow and brushy, and would be difficult to yield to another car if you saw one going the opposite direction. There are a couple of washes on the road, so you might not want to do it in a heavy rain. No gates, so you don't have to worry about politicians closing it down any time soon.

Beautiful trail out from the TH, head out early in the hotter season, for shade will be difficult to find. It's a short jaunt to Little Eightmile Lake, the hill side here is an burned section, and it is here where the trail to Lake Caroline heads up the hill side. This portion of the trail is completely exposed to the sun. After you bust a move all over the hill side getting to the very top, it will not be without some great views of Aasgard Pass, and Mt. Stewart (sp) ... At just about the top, the burn area stops and you enter some timber, and walah, Lake Caroline is snuggled down in a three sided bowl. From the ridge above the lake, you can see a large rock out cropping on the other side of the lake. **Good camp site there. Many others too around the lake, which are more secluded in the trees. The trail on up to Windy Pass is 90% above the tree line, so take your sunblock, the was plenty of water available. Windy Pass is awesome !!! Enjoy Mates !!

Last year's WTA Hike-a-Thon prize winner Ryan Carpenter, WTA regional correspondent Lindsay Leffelman and I took on an end-to-end recognizance of Squire Creek Pass with guidebook author Craig Romano. We dropped a car at the Squire Creek trailhead on FR 2040 and drove through Darrington to the Eightmile Creek trailhead at FR 2060. As far as car shuttles go, this was pretty easy. Both roads are short and in good shape (there was even a fancy convertible sports car at Squire!). The trail to Squire Creek Pass via Eightmile gets right to business, climbing 2350 feet in 2.7 miles. The trail is steep, rough in places, but it wasn't terrible (no blowdowns). There are massive cedars to admire, huckleberries and blueberries to eat, and once near the top, massive granite slick rock to be wowed by. The pass itself is one big slab of granite and lichen, with grand views: Jumbo Peak, Three Fingers, Mount Bullon and Whitehorse Mountains, plus several impressive no-namers, and even a glimpse of Glacier Peak if you stand on your tip-toes or climb up the rock a ways. We broke out some two-bit brownies, Cool Whip and raspberries in celebration and to fuel our bodies for the long downhill trek. After picking abundant blueberries on the west side of the pass, our work began. Because the way up from Squire Creek had been barred for many years due to an unstable rock slide, the trail is a mess. For a good mile or so, we bushwhacked down the slope. The brush was high and tread non-existent in several places as we crossed avalanche chutes, rock slides and creek beds. Cairns were helpful to lead the way, but there were 3 or 4 times we stopped and had to really investigate which way the trail went. At 3.5 miles we reached the end of the original road, which suffered several massive rockslides in 2003. The past decade has turned the last 2.2. miles of the road into a trail again. We had no trouble in this section, but early in the season there are reportedly a few hairy creek crossings. Near the trailhead we were delighted to discover recent work by WTA trail crews. Maybe there is hope for rehabilitating this trail yet. Final assessment: Awesome views and berries! Neither approach is suitable for anyone but strong hikers. The Squire Creek side requires route-finding abilities. Bugs were a non-factor. One-way distance: 8.5 miles Total elevation gain: 2,566 feet

Ike and Phlemy accompanied me today on this rugged, but very scenic trail. I'd hiked into the pass via the Darrington trail many years ago, but hadn't hiked it since the road washed out. I'd heard about the Eight Mile trail in the past, but that it was horrendous. Not so much. Probably the worst thing about it is the Clear Creek Road. I remember being on it as a kid, but it has certainly deteriorated. It's very narrow and bumpy with a couple of wash out areas that have been repaired, but minimally. The trail is no walk in the park either, but just fine by my standards. It begins on a long abandoned logging road that is essentially a boulder/rock walkway with an easy grade. Once you leave this you begin up a trail that seems to have had little to no maintenance for a long time. It's not brushy and there are only a couple of logs to clamber over, but there are a few muddy spots and it's steep with roots and rocks. Still, there's lots of soft forest duff to walk on the some really enormous yellow cedars to gawk at. Approximately 2 miles in and 1/2 mile before the pass you leave the forest behind and enter very fine park land with a series of spectacular waterslide type falls emptying into deep pools. This might have been my favorite part of the hike, but there was so much more! Wildflowers start here with Canadian dogwood, Queen's cup, heather, columbine, and many others. The pass was as I remembered, great views to White Horse, Three Fingers and Liberty Peak with stunning rock walls lining the valley below. The pass itself is covered with rock slabs and a variety of cairns and intriguing rock arrangements. It looks like there might have been a Druid or two doing some business here. Very mysterious and this was also to be found here on my last trip at least 12 years ago. Hmmmmm...... After a quick lunch, Phlemy and I walked up to the ridgeline south of the pass for a view to the other side of Helena and assorted peaks. There's still some snow here, but consolidated and melting fast. This is an outstanding trip that not many people do, and it deserves a lot more attention than it's been getting. The trail is short, but it doesn't feel like it gaining 2400' in 2.5 miles, although you could probably add another 1/4 mile for the ridgetop viewpoint. Another great day and a very worthy destination. Now, if Darrington could just get a decent place to have an ice cream cone....

The road to the the trailhead is a little rough but we had no problems in a subaru outback getting there. The trail had a few sites with blowdown, but easy to get around. The snow level was around 3500'-3600'. We were able to follow footprints through the snow to the pass which made the navigating much simpler. We didn't have any post-holing and the snow was about 3' deep at the summit. The views at the summit are awesome and the sun halo and rainbow clouds that day made the views even better.