[DICE]

Day 3 started just like Day 2, clear blues skies with comfortable temps. Our goal for the day was to make it somewhere along Mount Hagan for an alpine camp. Rather than camping at Berdeen Lake and having a HUGE last day, we thought it would be nice to have a short final day. This turned out to be smart since the last day ended up being about 8hrs anyways. Since we wanted a little time to fish and relax at Berdeen, we made breakfast and were on our way by 7:30 or so. While breaking camp, we saw the second of 4 bears we would see on our trip.

bear on the north shore of Green

start of bushwack from camp

nasty

easy walking towards Nert Lake

Nert Lake

fresh bear print

ridge we would climb to ~5400'

A bushwack right from camp made for sweaty conditions right off the bat. However, the schwak was short lived and we were on top of the pass in 20 minutes or so. Then, came the gentle meadow stroll towards Nert Lake. Made excellent time to the lake. Not the most scenic of lakes, but ok. Glad we didnt camp here, the bugs were bad. From the lake, we decided we wanted to climb the NS oriented ridge NE of Nert Lake to around 5400'(to a small lake) and contour the mtn at this elevation to get to Berdeen Lake. This ended up being an amazingly scenic stretch while also being FLAT for once with minimal brush. We made great time to Berdeen. If my memory serves me correct, we made it to Berdeen from Green Lake in about 4hrs, with a 30 minute boulder scrambling session in-between.

The short distance we had covered from Green

Bacon Peak

look closely and you can see Green Lake Falls

small section of the falls

Bacon and Green

small lake @ ~5400'

gorgeous tarn

last glimpse of Bacon and Green

first glimpse of Berdeen

time for some bouldering

furry friend

ahhh, finally!!!

Once we reached the lake(or the ridge above the lake), we tried locating the best way down to the lake. This was done by going down steep heather slopes down to flat benches, followed by more steep heather. Finally made it down to near the outlet of the lake. But we were determined to eat lunch on the prominent spot near the middle of the lake, where you can look towards both ends of the lake. Some careful steps on heather and rock hugging the shore finally brought us to our final spot on the lake. Spent several hrs soaking up the lake and fishing. Caught about 8 fish between 3 of us. Although we wanted to spend the rest of the day at the lake, we had plans to get the Hagan, so we packed things up and headed on our way by mid afternoon. (Berdeen Lake would have been our 4th night, if we had planned another night. Looking back at the trip, another day would have been awesome)

a little dicey

Berdeen and Bacon

tiny little thing

Followed the lakeshore north several hundred feet above the lake on a flat bench. Made good time to inlet of Berdeen as well as upper Berdeen Lake. Once in this area, the views north towards Hagan dominate. Almost looks like a different area, like the High Sierra. Followed the old moraine towards the east facing glacier on Hagan. From the looks of it, the lower flat section seemed more like a snowfield. However, other TR show the lower flat section being crevassed. I guess we did see 1 crevasse. Probably should have roped up just to be safe. A prominent pass/notch almost due west was what we were aiming for. Looked like we could avoid crevasses on upper glacier be going up and around. However, it wasnt clear on how we would get to the snow. We headed straight up snowfield/glacier to talus and found our way up to the glacier. Roped up and strapped on crampons for an easy climb to the notch. Once at the pass, views extended to Mt Triumph and the Pickets to the east, and towards Baker and Shuksan to the west.

island near bend in lake

falls everywhere around here

starting up the moraine

notch we are heading for

Triumph

finally at the notch

looking NE

camp

Descended the Hagan glacier(on westside) to a nice camp around 6200'. Most importantly this spot had running water so we wouldnt have to melt snow. Enjoyed an amazing sunset and relaxed while looking back at our amazing trip. 98% of the elevation gain was done, and all we had to do was descend 5500' down to the Baker River on a steep ridge to get to our cars. To be honest, I really wasn't looking forward to it, but I tried keeping it out of my mind on that final evening.

Mt Hagan

camp with Blum in background

soaking in the last rays

last light on Hagan

last light on Blum

view from tent

Slept without the fly on the tent. A little breezy, but couldnt get much better views from the tent. Woke up to fairly chilly conditions but crystal clear skies. The plan was to summit Blum on the way down, but given the extra few hrs it would have taken to summit, we decided this would have to wait another day. Sidehilled towards Blum Lakes from camp and made the lower of the lakes in short order. Rested here and had a snack before the brutal descent down the prominent but unknown ridge. A brief ascent from the lake brought us to the spine of the ridge. Made quick descent of 2000' before running into a few extremely steep gorges. Thumbed over all the maps we had brought and finally figured out that we had gone slightly to the east side of the ridge(ridge becomes slightly less defined as you go down). Had to climb several hundred feet back up to go up and around these inner gorges before started downhill again. Not too long after these gorges, we started seeing signs of a SUPER faint "trail". The farther we went down, the trail would become more and more pronounced. However, the trail would pretty much disappear for several hundreds of feet at a time. So it made for slow progress, but we wanted to make sure we followed this trail as we knew it would take us down to the river. Made the looong slog down, but not before running into a older fellow who was going up the fisherman/climbers trail. This just might have been the strangest feeling I've felt in a long time. When you don't see anyone else but your party for more than 3 days, you're not sure if you are happy or sad to see someone else. I was just glad to almost be back to the cars. After what seemed like an eternity(we all ran out of water 80% down ridge), we finally made it to the official trail down at the river and made the quick jaunt back to the Baker River parking lot where we had stashed beers in the brush! Took a quick swim in the river to clean off before making the long drive back to the Watson trailhead to pick up our other vehicle. Then it was another couple hrs back home.

view from sleeping bag!

Shuksan shadow on Baker

chilly morning

lacing up for the last time

the ridge we will be going down

sidehilling towards Blum lakes

Lower Blum Lake

looking back towards our final camp

start of ridge descent

steep

bridge over Blum Creek

A trail!

Bridge over the Baker River

A few more steps

Amazing scenery, remoteness, navigation challenges and perfect weather made for a memorable trip. I hope to someday do this trip again, although with probably an extra day or two thrown in! Trip stats: 4 days ~24 miles Total Elevation Gain 10,515ft Total Elevation Loss 13,931ft

[Dayhike Mike]

One more time: Nice! Thanks for the pics and storytelling!

[hikermike]

No comments yet? This was an amazing trip I've always wanted to do... great report and excellent pix! A Big WOW!

[peltoms]

Great shots on a route that I remember well, but am not anxious to repeat. I love the glacier shots and mentioned the Hidden Creek one in stewardship.