While the Robinson Creek trail is a great way to access deep into the Pasayten, this trail also makes a great shoulder season out-and-back day hike to aptly name Beauty Creek Falls and beyond.  As a major horse pack route in the summer, this relatively gently graded trail is very well maintained (e.g., excellent bridges), and doing this hike during the fall shoulder season means that you have this trail largely to yourself.  We turned around about a half mile beyond the falls, making this a 7 mile, 1,500-foot day hike.  Beautiful country!

I thought I'd take advantage of possibly one of the last good weather windows of the season and enjoy the stunning North Cascades before the snows arrived. As for that, our return from Mazama over Washington Pass was quite the adventure - but more on that later.

We started at the Robinson Creek TH (478) bright and early on a gorgeous, sunny day and made good time up to the turnoff (478A) that leads up to Slate Pass. The Green Trails map says this trail is 'Hard to follow' but we didn't find that to be the case at all. Plus it saves you an extra three miles you have to do if you decide to go up and over Robinson Pass, drop down 700' to the junction with the Middle Fork Pasayten River (575) only to trudge back up 900' to the junction with 478A.

Call me crazy but elevation is elevation and why lose any when there are better alternatives?

The views from Slate Pass are mind-boggling of course; as stated in other reports. There are simply too many peaks, valleys and ranges to grok it all so best to find yourself a nice sunny spot out of the wind and enjoy the colorful view while chomping down on your favorite snack items. And lucky charm me, the larches were all just turning brilliant golden hues!

From the pass, we hooked up with the PCT and marched southward past Hart's Pass, Tatie Peak and made camp two in a lovely protected site just north of Grasshopper Pass.

From Grasshopper (6800') it's a knee-buckling downhill plunge (I gave up counting switchbacks) to Glacier Pass (5600') and then to the junction with the West Fork of the Methow River (4300') where there are a couple of good camp sites. With water! Part of the fun of the day was meeting and talking with a half-dozen PCT through-hikers; a bunch of nicer folks you'll never meet. All were pretty stoked that after almost five months they were only a few days from finishing. Kudos to them!

From there it's a lah-di-dah 8.5 mile amble down the Methow to the trailhead. I'd heard rumors that the upper portions of the trail are overgrown, brushy and full of downfall but we didn't have any issues. It is however, quite open and exposed (think hot) due to the 2003 Needle Fire and the trail is too often far from the river - but a little due diligence will keep you well hydrated. The bridge at Trout Creek (2 miles from TH) is still quite impressively washed-out but at this time of the season we had no problem rock-hopping our way across.

From the Methow River (aka Rattlesnake) TH, you can either walk the busy, dusty road 1.5 miles back to your vehicle or you can look for a quiet, lovely trail to the left that parallels the road all the way back to the Robinson Creek TH. Trust me, it's a much more pleasant way to finish up your trip.

So, what about that adventure I mentioned at the beginning of this report? Well just for an extra challenge, the weather turned wet, then arctic and then snowy so we quickly beat a slippery retreat back over the North Cascades Highway to the west side while the getting was good. The things we do for fun!

With unsettled weather forecast for the west side, we decided to head for the Pasayten wilderness for our first multi-day outing of the year.  Day-by-day description follows:

Day 1: After dropping off two PCT through-hikers at Hart’s pass that we had picked up hitchhiking in Mazama, we left Slate Pass trailhead around 3 PM for the 4.5 mile trek to Silver lake.  We did not see anyone on the hike in, but on arrival were surprised to see two twelve person parties camped there – one from NOLS, and one from Outward Bound.  This would not be the first time we ran into them on our 6-day outing.  Great to see these young adults getting out in the wilderness. The trail was in good condition.

Day 2: After a leisurely start, we headed north on the trail to Buckskin Lake.  The trail was also in good shape and easy to follow, but seemed to be much longer than the 5.1 miles shown on my old (ca. 2003) GT map.  It took us 6.5 hours of hiking to get there, including breaks.  Yes we are slow, but not that slow!  The trail dropped down quite a bit lower than what was shown on the map.  The traverse section north of Silver Pass before crossing to the east side of the ridge was particularly enjoyable due to the western views of the central north cascades, and the expansive meadows.  We had the trail and Buckskin lake to ourselves, and fresh morels we found along the way to add to our dinner! 

Day 3: Our intention was to cross the middle fork Pasayten at the first opportunity to head for our next objective: Lake Doris and Osceola Peak.  The map showed a potential crossing about 6 miles north of the lake where the Buckskin ridge trail first reaches the river.  I also had some information about another, unnamed trail that heads straight down 1600 feet to the river from a point on the Buckskin ridge trail just north of the lake.  We found this trail easily, and followed it all the way down to the river, crossed the river (mid calve deep), and continued up the east side of the river (still on a good trail) to hook up with the middle fork trail.  I don’t know who developed this unmarked trail, but it is well graded and easy to follow – thanks whoever – you saved us about 9 miles of walking!  The shortcut allowed us to easily make it to Lake Doris for the evening. 

Day 4: Not really knowing the most efficient way to get to the west ridge of Osceola, we headed up a talus slope directly north of lake Doris to gain the west shoulder.  We traversed along the west shoulder all the way to the base of the west ridge.  From here the climb was straightforward on a climbers track and broken talus.  On descent we found the most direct route to the lake, by heading south from the base of the west ridge to an orange colored rock intrusion, where we picked up a climbers track.   On arrival at the lake it was windy and two other parties had set up camp.  Being solitude snobs, and deciding it was too cold and windy to go for a swim, we decided to pack up and head east toward Shellrock Pass to a camp spot we heard about, and found, about 2.5 miles in.  It’s about a mile past the (abandoned) Eureka creek trail 474 junction.  Not a particularly scenic camp, but quiet, wind and bug-free, and with good water.

Day 5: Went on a short day hike east along the trail just to check out the approaches to Carru and Lago (for future reference). The trail is pretty sketchy east of our camp spot due to blowdowns and overgrown areas, but still not a problem to follow.    We had to turn around after about a mile or so, to head back to camp and pack up and head out to the middle fork trail to position ourselves for a short hike on Tuesday to the trailhead and car.  We made it all the way south on the middle fork trail to the river crossing.  There is a lovely camp spot just past the river crossing in expansive meadows.  We had the place to ourselves. There is another large meadow and camping area about a half mile north of the river crossing, but the same NOLS and OB groups were there so we decided to push on, and were glad we did so.

Day 6: Short hike back to Silver pass.  The meadows and wildflowers were quite spectacular along this section!

Hiked about 4+ miles up the Robinson Creek Trail #478from the trailhead, to the 3^rd bridge (2^nd crossing of Robinson Creek). Trail was frequently brushy but no downed logs. Lots of wildflowers (I counted > 40 species in those 4 miles), not many views.

This my 2nd attempt to submit this description since the app crashed before I could submit it. I wrote it in gmail and then copied and pasted since my text was lost. So it will be shorter than my initial submission. Photos also are not loading.

We hiked to the second bridge at 4.5 miles per our GPS. The elevation gain was 1600 ft. It was a great hike even with the heat.

There are 15 trees down across the trail from before the Beauty Creek bridge to part way to the 2nd bridge. 2 had to be scrambled over and a few required detours into the brush.