[Tazz]

Trip date: July 27-28, 2005 Figured this would be a quiet trip since main route to Byrne Lake via White Chuck River is washed out. Saw 5 people, all off whom were day hiking from Round Lake camps and all of whom turned around prior to getting to Byrne. The Green maps are deceiving - this is a ball buster, particularly on a hot day with constant up and downs. Nevertheless, I made it up with my pack and spent the night. Poked my head over the ridge toward Black Mnt (I had aspirations of climbing this peak but was too wiped) to check out unnamed tarn...see pic. Despite the dotted line on the green map, the trail is continuous and easy to follow and in good shape with the exception of a few young evergreens encroaching in places. -Mania Glacier Peak

taken by dan

Flowers

taken by dan

Byrne Lake

taken by dan

Tarn just South East of Byrne

taken by dan

[Quark]

Don't tell me you didn't go see the detritus left at the hot springs site. don't tell me you went through all that and didn't go check out the massive slide that wiped out the ranger cabin and hot springs and the bridge and skipped seeing the "bathtub ring" left by the floods on each side of the valley of the white chuck. i'm very interested in this trip. i heard there was an ugly ford along the trail from Bingley to the Kennedy area....? Yes? No?

[Tazz]

am I in trouble? I didn't see the point of decending down to a decimated Kennedy Hot springs and well, I guess I must admit, even if it was unchanged I wouldn't have bothered. If there is a ford (White Chuck?) it is beyond Byrne lake.

[Quark]

uh, YEAH you're in trouble. Whassamatter with you, you don't want to see it? You unAmerican, or sumpin? It's Disaster. It's Devastation. Ruin. What's so amazing is that it's part of the morphing of our topography. It's Glacier Peak still forming it's part of the planet. The soft volcanic soil slumping, falling, rolling down...and you could done seed it fairly soon after the event. The whole mountainside above Kennedy fell in. Other neat stuff to see (other devastating storms than Oct, 2003): The big scar on the side of Jumbo above Darrington. You can see it from about the Whitehorse store on 530. Look up toward Whitehorse (Mtn) and see the big slide area. Different year, but still cool to see. You can walk to it, too (it obliterated part of the trail). Stand at the base of what was once the road, and be in awe of the devasation. The Proctor Creek dump/slump. Again, cool to see. Our part of the N America hasn't yet reached it's point of repose. We're living in geomorphological activity. It's so damn cool.

[Tazz]

The amazing morphing landscape of the Northwest - I'm most interested in it in terms of photography. Of course you have things like Mt. St Helens but it's the little things like logs getting stuck in Oneonta Gorge (Columbia River Gorge), a fallen tree proped up inside Punchbowl for the last half dozen years changing the classic photo, a mudslide altering Christina Fall MRNP, Glaciers receeding including the spillway on Icy Peak which I revisited recently. South Cascade glacier which I hope to visit soon has been receeding at an amazing rate. There are many new lakes that are not shown on the green maps such as the one I visited at the toe of a glacier coming off of Mt. Hinman. I'm sure other people have many more examples.

[Quark]

You know the log that's smack-dab in the middle of John Pierce falls off Hwy 20? That bugs the hell out of me. It's like needing to scratch an itch you can't reach. I'm glad to know the dotted line trail from Bingley to the area is easy to follow.

[wildernessed]

[lopper]

Had a college roomate from Massachussetts a long time ago. He wanted to experience the Cascades. This hike is the one I selected. Trundled up the switchbacks to Bingley in late afternoon under T-storms. Bivouaced at timberline. Dawn at 5000 feet...what a great way to start. We wandered Lost Creek Ridge towards Byrne for the next two days. The Navy was flying A7 Corsairs back then......we watched them roaring around above and below us during the few times the views didn't command all our attention. Unfinished business: the old Camp Lake trail that drops north to the WC trailhead, and OF COURSE the mass-wastage display at Kennedy.

[Sore Feet]

[marzsit]

personally, i'm looking forward to visiting the newly-improved kennedy hot springs area. that area was nasty in 1979, the first time i visited it. maybe the new spring that emerges from the rubble will be left to drain unobstructed into the white chuck where it belongs.. that water really is too gross to bathe in.....

[#19]

[mike]

I'll provide the chainsaw if i get to watch Of course for safety's sake you'll need to use a rope....on my chainsaw.