Lake Byrne Lost Creek Ridge North Fork Sauk Pilot Ridge
- The Glacier Peak Area - Lost Creek Ridge-Red Pass-Pilot Ridge Loop. USGS Glacier Peak West, Sloan Peak, and Benchmark Mountain. This is the ""long"" version of the loops described as trips 90 and 91 in ""Don't Waste Your Time in the North Cascades."" We chose to hike it in the reverse direction from the one described in the book, starting at Lost Creek Ridge and ending on Pilot Ridge. Hiking counterclockwise, as Copelands describe, requires getting all the way to Blue Lake on day 1. We had tried (and failed) to make those 11.4 miles and 4500 feet in 1986 and decided to try the opposite direction this time. And having gone up the miserable trail onto Pilot Ridge in 1986, we thought going down would be easier this time. We began shortly before 10:00 on Saturday July 25 by hauling our 65 lb packs 2500 feet up to Bingley Gap. At about 4400 feet, the Gap is not a worthwhile destination, even for a day hike, as it is forested and has no views. However another hour of uphill travel begins to reward you with views of Sloan Peak and, a bit later, Glacier Peak. There is a junction with a side trail down to Round Lake at about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, approximately 5500 feet. Although many day hikers appeared headed for Round Lake, we stayed on the ridge and camped at Sunup Lake, about a half mile beyond the Round Lake junction. Sunup Lake shows clearly on the map, but it is a bit tricky to find, because it is about 200 feet above the trail and out of sight. The trail crosses the outlet and an obvious spur trail to the left appears to head for the lake. The trail climbs 100 feet or so and then peters out. If you follow the direction the trail was heading, you will not find Sunup Lake. Instead, traverse sharply back to the left and uphill, crossing below a small rocky spur. A meager path leads through some down trees and leads you to the outlet of the lake and fine camping at 5700 feet. We dropped our packs for the first day at Sunup Lake and, after dinner, circumnavigated the lake and scrambled to the top of a 5900 point northwest of the lake. There was a spectacular campsite right at the top. No water, but great views. There were many day hikers on the trail this Saturday, but only one other party appeared to be camped near Sunup Lake. Day Two was supposed to be an easy day to recover from hauling full packs up to the ridge. No such luck. The trail was not difficult to follow, even though it is not shown on the Green Trails map, but it was far from the level traverse of open meadows which we had hoped for. The lupine were gorgeous (as they were throughout the loop) but there were many small (150' - 400') ups and downs, most of them quite steep. With temperatures in the low 90's in Seattle, we were hot and tired when we finally reached Camp Lake. We were also probably a bit dehydrated, because water is scarce on Lost Creek Ridge. An hour's rest (and a quart of water) a Camp Lake gave us the will to climb the last 250 feet to the broad saddle between Camp Lake and Lake Byrne. Camping is much better here than it would appear to be at Lake Byrne itself. There is snowmelt for water and great views of Glacker, Baker, Dome, and the tip of Bonanza. All in all, however, it took us as long to get from Sunup Lake to our campsite on Day Two as it had taken to get from the trailhead to Sunup :Lake the day before. Some rest day!. We had plenty of solitude as compensation, however. After leaving Sunup Lake, we only saw one person the entire length of Lost Creek Ridge, and no one else was camped at the saddle between Camp Lake and Lake Byrne. The plan for Day Three was to descend past Lake Byrne to Kennedy Hot Springs and then follow the Crest Trail south to the meadows north of Red Pass. It was another miserably hot day, but most of it was in forest, after we left Lake Byrne. Leaving Lake Byrne was hard to do, however. It was beautiful in the morning light and we had the lake to ourselves. We had met one lone hiker earlier in the day. He said we must be crazy not to have fishing gear. We said he must be crazy not to have cameras. We chuckled at each other and continued in opposite directions, literally as well as figuratively, as he was heading west out Lost Creek Ridge. After leaving Lake Byrne, we had an uneventful (but shaded) descent to Kennedy Hot Springs and set out to join the Crest Trail at 3900 feet. Still in trees, we reached Chetwot Creek, which was running so high that it had apparently flooded the trail for a few hundred yards. A reasonable footlog then got us across Baekos Creek and some more level trudging along the Crest Trail got us to the crossing of the White Chuck at 4200', about three and a half hours after leaving Kennedy Hot Springs. The White Chuck is quite a raging torrent where the Crest Trail crosses it. No wonder the Forest Service has had trouble keeping a bridge in place there. But the cool breeze coming down the valley was most welcome, and at least on this 90 degree day the shade made up for the lack of views. From the White Chuck crossing, we climbed moderately steeply to a lower meadow and a campsite with good water but no views. Although it was getting a bit late, we decided to push on to the upper meadows below Red Pass, and found a good campsite next to the trail at about 5600 feet. The best campsite in the meadow appeared to be on a small knoll about 75' above the trail, but it was already taken. The next morning we had a leasurely stroll through more meadows and snow patches to Red Pass. A few high clouds moderated the heat and were welcome on the climb to the pass, as were many stops to photograph wild flowers. Dave took advantage of one stop to climb to the top of the White Chuck Cinder Cone, where he saw tracks of a bobcat or small cougar. South of Red Pass, the Crest Trail traverses to White Pass through more spectacular lupine and other wildflowers, with great views out the Sauk and south as far as Mt. Rainier. Camping is not allowed along the crest of White Pass itself, and the designated area a few hundred feet below the pass did not interest us, so we pushed on to end Day Four at Reflection Pond, a short 2 miles south of White Pass, and perhaps a half mile north of the junction with the White River Trail. Reflection Pond was probably our worst campsite of the trip. Photographically, the pond was a disappointment. It does reflect, but the reflection is of Indian Head Peak, not Glacier Peak. The view out the Sauk to Sloan Peak was nice, but not great. The wildflowers were spectacular. The wildlife was another matter, however. First, the mosquitoes had been getting worse each night and they were truly miserable at Reflection Pond. We gave up and sought refuge in the tent. Then we were visited by a deer who had not been taught to avoid humans. She browsed casually through camp, pretending to munch on leaves, but actually stalking the socks we had spread to air out. First tentatively, then with increasing boldness, she approached the smelly bits of cotton. Finally, with a decisive lunge, she had one white liner sock firmly in her mouth and began to chew contentedly. We were not totally surprised by this raid, and proceeded to do our part to persuade her to get her salt needs from more reliable (and more natural) sources. Loud shouts and sudden moves toward the deer did not frighten her and did not persuade her to drop the sock, but probably did make her think that these particular humans were a bit odd. Finally, after two or three minutes, some other noise startled her and she dropped the sock, providing an opportunity to dash in and retrieve it -- deer slobber and all. Fortunately we carry spare socks. Day Five continued on the Crest Trail through lovely meadows and spectacular luping past Indian Pass, Kodak Peak (where we had camped in the rain in 1986) and Dishpan Gap to the junction with the way trail over the ridge to Blue Lake. With the exception of one party of seven or eight young people, we saw very few people, even on the Crest Trail. The way trail to Blue Lake was much steeper and longer on the south (Dishpan Gap) side than I had remembered it. It is at least as steep as the first mile out of Spider Meadows on the way to Spider Gap, and the footing is worse than at Spider. The descent to Blue Lake is no more fun than going up the other side, but at least the lake is in view much of the way. Just be careful to spend most of your time watching your feet and not admiring the view. Although we were the first to arrive at Blue Lake we were soon joined by three other parties. That was more human congestion than we had experienced anywhere else on the trip and was a big surprise to us. We had expected solitude at Blue Lake. The hot, sunny weather broke during the night, and it began to rain as we started heading out on Day Six. It was our last day, and so we didn't mind the rain that much, although it did spoil the views of the Monte Cristo Peaks from Pilot Ridge. The rain let up after an hour or so, and we enjoyed the ridge walk along Pilot Ridge. From the shoulder of Johnson Mtn. to a saddle at about 5500 feet, the Pilot Ridge trail is the pleasant meadow traverse we had hoped for on Lost Creek Ridge. But then the trail takes you over a couple of small knolls, down to a 5000' saddle, up and over a 5400' bump, and then dives off the ridge on a truly miserable trail leading down to the Sauk. There is a log crossing of sorts over the Sauk, but it did not look appealing to us. My boots were already soaked from six miles of wet vegetation on the Ridge, so I just waded across. The water was not particularly cold, nor particularly swift or deep, and the ford was no problem. We squished out the last two miles to the trailhead, where Dave retrieved his bike, rode four miles to the Lost Creek Ridge trailhead, and drove the car back to pick me and our packs up. All in all, this was an outstanding trip. Total distance was about 46 miles, total elevation gain and loss, about 12,000 feet. You could do this trip in fewer than six days, especially if you did the hike counterclockwise and were able to make it all the way to Blue Lake on the first day. But we liked doing it at a more leasurely pace. Dave and Alan Sherbrooke July 25-30, 1998