[themountainwhispers]

Grand Pasayten Traverse: From 30-mile TH along Chewuch trail to Tungsten mine, Boundary trail to Cathedral Pass, Bald Mountain, Ashnola River, Peeve Pass, Larch trail along Sand Ridge to Larch Pass, offtrail around Two Point mountain and Dollar Watch, Deception Pass, Stub Creek to Hidden Lakes, Tatoosh Buttes trail to Middle Fork Pasayten, then down to Robinson Pass, and out at Robinson Cr TH July 6-13, 2020 Hi folks! First time trail report, and unfortunately our camera wasn't working properly, so not many photos (I'll try to put up a few that were least blurry, when possible). Overall: absolutely glorious, fantastic trip. Very little snow. Water everywhere, but fewer bugs than feared. Truly magnificent high-alpine traverses and always-changing mountain views. Some sun, some rain, mostly cool and partly cloudy, perfect for hiking. Most of the terrain has been burned in the last 20 years, much of it in the last 3 years. Quite beautiful example of the integration of green forest and burned forest, the return of vegetation, fire-adapted flora and fauna, and varied burns from high-intensity to light mosaic. And wildflowers! Everywhere! This was a grand tour of a completely new area to us. (Family adventure, two of us younger at 10 and 15, two middle-aged.) For the last 4 years we've been circumnavigating Cascade volcanoes every summer, but our plans to circle Glacier Peak (at this Covid-contrained time window) were stymied by the persistent snow. So at the last minute we generated this route, based on reports on this site and others; thanks so very much, everyone! The main challenge was to encompass as much of the beautiful high areas as possible, minimizing bugs at this time of year, while keeping mileage, slog-factor, and glory-to-sketchy ratio fairly manageable for kids. A loop looked hard to assemble, because of the relative lack of east/west trails along the south side of the wilderness. Moreover, it's well known that many of the trails on existing maps (especially older ones) are in more and more disrepair or almost entirely gone, especially after the fires over the last two decades. So, that was the challenge. An extremely generous friend in the area said: "No, I can't move your car from Iron Gate to Harts Pass, because it's a huge amount of rutted gravel and would take forever, but I can move it from Thirtymile to Robinson." This minimizes the amount of non-tarred road to about 6 miles. Thus our starting/ending. In order to splice active/cleared trails together, my plan was to go offtrail from Larch Pass around the south side of Two-Point to Dollar Watch Pass, then from the south end of Dollar Watch Mtn straight down to Hidden Lakes trail. This seemed to me the best way to connect the central high traverse area to the big peaks further west, without risking the reputedly exhausting Dean Creek and E. Fork Pasayten trail-remnants. It seemed mostly blowdown-free from satellite photos, and having been there now and looked it over from various angles I'm confident it works well. (In practice, we ended up skipping the second part of it and taking a chance on Stub Creek as you will see below, which I would NOT recommend.) We did not use a GPS, partly to teach the kids orienteering, and partly for our own benefit (extra encouragement to pay attention to where we are). We had one as a backup, but have no .gpx track or exact mileage/elevation stats. Caltopo estimates our journey at 85 miles. Details: Day 1: Thirtymile TH to Pocket Lake. We were advised that Horseshoe Basin would be a bit marshy/buggy this time of year, and skipped it. Camped at a big rock just before Pocket Lake, where some folk have put in a sort of Boy Scout-style leveled tent area. Mellow. Day 2: Pocket Lake to Tungsten Mine. We were "warned" by a party of six coming out that the Tungsten Cr trail had blowdown, but it was very very manageable. At the crossing of the creek before the turnoff, there's a gorgeously cold deep pool in the creek. One of us sampled a triple dunk. Bracing! The Tungsten mine was an exciting surprise for the youngest of us, and we spent some time exploring. The cabins are in good shape, plenty of fun graffiti to examine and old implements to imagine with. And Apex mountain as a backdrop is simply stunning. Day 3: Tungsten to Bald Mtn Cathedral Pass is all that! Really an amazing viewscape as you arrive around the contour from the east -- Amphitheater Mtn on one side, the distinctive peak of Cathedral on the other. Then the pass and the lakes (plus higher tarns that I imagine dry up later, that some of us swam in). We headed over the pass toward Remmel Lake, and this is a beautiful high area to explore. A bit wet and buggy, but wide and open. Then the slog down to Spanish Camp (lots of bugs) and back up through the slow, wide, marshy contour towards the top of the NW shoulder of Bald Mtn. Here there was an exceptionally friendly deer. Came to visit as we looked for a camping spot, then stayed all night regularly within 10 feet of us and the tent, then stuck around (and brought a rather more skittish friend) for the morning! We did not feed it. Day 4: Bald Mtn to Sand Ridge Woke to rain, broke camp quickly and hiked down (oh, my knees) to the Ashnola R. Fording it was pretty easy, though we stripped to undies (and beyond!). Then the big climb back up Sheep Mtn to Peeve Pass, then off the Boundary trail along Sand Ridge. At the high point we dropped packs and scampered up to the top of the ridge, which was displaying gorgeous snow cornices on the east side. On the west was the glorious sloping high alpine meadow all the way over to Whistler basin. We had considered traversing over that way and then back over Whistler pass, and it looked fine to me, but perhaps a touch too uncertain for the rest of us (might have required some backtracking or dropping/climbing, and folks were tired). So we continued along the trail to the last big forested area before the climb to the pass where the Corral Lake trail comes in. We found a horse/mule skeleton here off the trail a bit, confirmed because of horseshoes (or mule shoes) nailed to hooves. At this point we discovered that we'd forgotten our 21-year old well-loved Whisperlite stove back on Bald Mtn! Oh no! (We really miss that stove, for sentimental reasons, so if anyone wants to grab it, please do; and please either love it very very well or send it back to us. For more, this post.) Day 5: Sand Ridge to Hidden Lakes This was the crux for our little journey. The morning climb in the high slopes of Ashnola Mtn and the ranges to the east was simply spectacular. Incredible views in all directions, that ineffable sense of freedom that you can range in any direction with newness around each corner. At Larch Pass we cut off to contour along the south side of Two Point, to a pass that is only a couple hundred feet above Larch. For much of the way there is a climbing trail/elk trail, and the final scramble is easy. The way down to the basin on the south side of Two Point has various options. I gave my daughter her head, as she's learning orienteering, and she chose a pretty good, more direct path down, slanting north. There are some cliffs to avoid directly below the pass, and some of us older folks have a harder time going straight downhill (knees! ankles!), so I would suggest a slightly higher slant down to the northwest. Crossing the basin was easy. We took a pretty much direct contour along a line more or less even with Dollar Watch pass, which was fine but a bit steep slope to sidehill in parts. In retrospect, would have stayed lower at the edge of the basin then climbed to the pass. The old trail through Dollar Watch pass (which we called "ambush pass" because it's so narrow with zero sightlines ) is perfectly fine. It takes a bit of awareness to follow the cairns that mark the cutoff trail that heads to the westerly pass up towards Dollar Watch mtn itself, but then it gets pretty easy to follow as well. Then "Middle Mtn Trail" around the south side of Dollar Watch continues to be (seductively) easy to follow. At the point where my plan called to leave the trail downhill SSW along the ridge to drop down to Hidden Lakes, I (foolishly) offered a choice to the team: downhill through the trees, or continue on the trail that I knew from reports was full of blowdown and mostly nonexistent. I had mostly not researched this trail because I assumed we wouldn't do it, but (unfortunately) just before leaving had seen this USFS page , which claims the western 2 miles are maintained (in fact, they are not). I offered this as possible but uncertain. One of us older folk had pretty sore knees/ankles by this point. The trail at that high spot seemed in great shape. Hidden Lakes trail looked far down there (3000 feet in 1-2 miles). However, in retrospect it is definitely better than attempting to follow the route of Stub Cr trail. The burned forest south of Dollar Watch is pretty sparse and currently has relatively little blowdown. The first part is fairly steep, but quickly levels to gentle ridgerunning descent. Then under a mile from the trail there's a fairly open steep-but-passable (apparently, from later view across valley) descent down the side of the ridge from ~6200ft to 4200 ft, going SW to intersect Hidden Lakes trail at Deception Cr. We didn't do this. Instead, we followed the high trail towards Deception Pass, and within a mile lost it. I didn't search for it very hard, so it might be findable somewhat in this area, but we ended up dropping through some quite steep burned hillsides (at least as challenging as original plan above), down to a creek falling to Deception Pass. Deception Pass itself is a fascinating place, all hills twisting and turning, exitless marshy waterways, and self-similar rises and falls in all directions. Great for learning orienteering! Eventually, we ran some zigzagging ridges through the place, dropped to a little marsh, and then found the cut of the trail going over the south side of the west pass out of the area. However, once the land leveled out, no more trail, and instead blow down everywhere. We followed the general lay of the trail, and it got buggier, steeper, and/or more wet/blown-down as we went. Found the trail exactly where expected at the two short sections crossing talus; otherwise, nothing. (Realized that this sort of thing is actually so very familiar from many years of cross-country routefinding, but mostly I forget about it quickly when I'm solo, soon as I'm back up high. <grin>) Finally got to the ridge run down to Hidden Lakes. The final drop is quite steep, and we were glad to find the trail's switchbacks again for the last stretch (north side of Stub Creek). There was a couple camping in the hiking shelter. These were only the second group of people we'd seen since the group of 6 at the very beginning. Wow! Day 6: Hidden Lakes to Pasayten. Heard a loon in the morning, gorgeous! Took a little swim in the middle lake, though not the ideal beach and rather silty bottom; it was delicious. Then the big climb up Tatoosh! Especially hot and dry section, but the trail is in fine shape. At the top we faced a decision. Our stretch goal had been to walk the ridge up Ptarmigan and then over/around Dot and Lago to the col, then drop to the old trail out to Doris Lake. After looking at it for a while I'm pretty sure it's entirely doable, but there was still quite a bit of snow up there, and people were a bit bushed. So instead we went out the use-trail to the viewpoint along the SW arm of Tatoosh, then back around and down the ridgerunning trail to the Pasayten R; a bit of blowdown, but mellow compared to the day before. Then we hiked along for a while until we got into green forest (wow, so cool and moist) and found a flat spot to camp. In the muddy bottoms of the Pasayten we find so much spoor! Wolf tracks, elk and moose tracks and scat, probable lynx and ubiquitous coyote and deer. Day 7: Pasayten to Robinson Creek. Shortly after resuming, the blowdown began to get worse. Partly in burned sections, but a lot of it just large patches of apparently unburned windfall. This was all from the last winter; clear evidence of previous maintenance, but for two miles it was crawling and long-way round and log-walking. (Almost tempted to skip the trail entirely and walk around the entire zone offtrail.) Finally, after the ford at Pleasant Valley (which was washed out for stock), we were putting shoes back on when lo! and behold! the angels of the two-handled saws emerged as from divine providence herself! It was an exciting moment. One of the two crews said they had counted 350 downed trees to cut in that two mile section, while scouting earlier, which had been much more than expected. (!) They also were going to work on the blowout in the ford. Later down the trail we encountered the USFS mule train that was packing the trail teams out, and packing scientists in. The train leader expected the trail crew would be done that night, all the way to the airstrip. I doubted it, would be impressed. (Anyone have a trail report from July 13 or so?) The kids were excited to be close to the TH. We went over Robinson pass into the truly beautiful (unburned) Robinson drainage, scampering down towards the creek. Encountered a large porcupine right by the trail, climbing a tree to avoid us! Wonderful experience. Finally, just as we reached the creek, there's a gorgeous alpine meadow (thin soil over rocks), surrounded by fairly mature green trees, and a fire ring. Beautiful! Day 8: Robinson Cr to Robinson TH The first creek crossing is an easy ford, or a challenging log crossing. The rest was very easy and pleasant. Remaining crossings are on bridges. Beauty creek is scintillating tall cascading waterfall, visible from the center of the bridge. Would love to explore the (unmaintained) trail into the that watershed. Final stretch out of the wilderness is steep. Our generous friend left us snacks in the car! What a sweetheart. Final thoughts: this was rich and profoundly meaningful for the family. Long stretches of relatively flat trails, grand vistas, great wide opens. Elevation change on your own terms. Many options. Rich, rewarding routefinding opportunities. Long enough to sink into the pace. What a place!

[Brushbuffalo]

Very descriptive and helpful information of current conditions for those venturing into many well-known ( and some not so well-known) parts of the vast Pasayten. ( wait, why does what I just wrote read like a promo for a guidebook?) Thank you for the excellent trip report, and please keep hiking and writing.

[Nancyann]

Very impressive family adventure! That’s wonderful that your kids are learning orienteering and applying it on such a challenging trip! If you left Hidden Lakes on Saturday we just missed you, as we arrived at Middle Hidden that afternoon. We were so happy to see (and hear) the loons as we weren’t sure they were still there after the devastating Diamond Creek fire. We bivied on the trail at Big Hidden due to our usual campsite being completely destroyed by the fire, and the loons were just precious. A family of three paraded back and forth in front of us until dark, coming closer as they realized we didn’t present any danger. They were still there in the morning, watching us, and when we left, followed us down the lake and called goodbye. Thanks so much for the excellent trip report and conditions update, much appreciated.

[themountainwhispers]

Thanks folks! Yes, hearing the loon was simply beautiful. We camped at some distance from the lake, but next time would try to find a spot right next to it as you suggest, and hope to watch them in the dusk. We didn't walk along Big Hidden, just took the Tatoosh trail shortly before reaching it, so I'm curious what the current status of the trail is past that point (till there it's fine, only a bit muddy/brushy). One other point: from Tatoosh Buttes slope looking back at Stub Creek, another option for getting to the lakes suggested itself. From Deception Pass, it appears one could run the ridge of the western pass north out of the trees and follow the crest of "Middle Mountain" hills around to the west, potentially contouring around many of the high points, and then down to hit the still-useful switchbacks for the final descent. Or the reverse. That looks much preferable to the blowdown-slog in the bottoms. What a truly wonderful place the Pasayten is!

[Stefan]

I appreciate your descriptions around Dollar Watch! Very good beta! Thank you!