Forum Index > Trip Reports > Buck Creek Pass- Napeequa- Little Giant Pass Loop plus the peaks! 8/28-30 2021
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Bluebird
suffering optional



Joined: 22 Jan 2014
Posts: 199 | TRs | Pics
Location: United States
Bluebird
suffering optional
PostTue Aug 31, 2021 9:14 pm 
Riley, Trace and I opted for an easier scramble trip this time, in that we got to leave our crampons, rope and harnesses at home! We originally thought to leave Friday, but I thought the weather looked spectacular Saturday-Monday so we cleared our schedules out to match the good weather. We camped across the street from the Rock Creek trail on Friday night. Someone had a loud wild rumpus just downstream that night that disrupted their sleep but I slept well in my car, insulated from the drumbeats and yelling. After dropping my car at the Little Giant trailhead and checking the ford (looked easy), we headed to Trinity, where a couple other parties were gearing up for their trips. We started hiking at 7am, excited for the day to come. The first 5.5ish miles went by quickly, with the only real obstacle the lack of bridge across the creek. They walked on the log and I butt scooted across. At our first break we sat on a sunny rock, snacked and drank some water. I was surprised to see Eric's smiling face, but then again, who else could catch up to us that fast biggrin.gif We chatted and learned about his epic trip plan and shared our hopeful plan as well.
We continued without stopping to the main boot path to Pass No Pass, where we again snacked and drank a bunch of water. We talked with more hikers, including two runners who were doing the same loop as us, but reversed directions and in a day. They must have started extremely early! We stashed some gear a bit up the path and continued towards Pass No Pass with lighter packs. The trail is braided with lots of routes, so watch where you end up, we ended up at a campsite that wasn't really optimal for our route, but we made it work and shortly were in Berry Heaven below the pass. It was hard to leave the berries behind, but we had a peak to scramble so we headed uphill. We started originally from the pass, but it was kinda bushwhacky and extremely steep. It's basically choose your own adventure up here following marmot trails and trying not to fall in their holes. The place is literally full of marmot holes. As we closed in on the summit block, we headed left and circled towards the Buck Creek Pass side before ascending the final scramble, which we were able to keep at class 3 and very fun. Spectacular views here.
We took a slightly different route down that ended up a steep semi-gully just downhill of Pass No Pass. We decided it was overall a better route, although we certainly slipped on the steep foliage a few times and I gave in to butt scooting down some of it. We ate more berries, headed down to our gear and repacked. After a quick walk to Buck Creek Pass we ditched our packs and carried water bottles to Flower Dome. My legs were super happy and I wanted to run up the hill! I convinced the guys to leave the trail and go more directly up the ridge and I did my best to bound up it. Views here of Glacier are obstructed unless you go into some little viewpoints, but they are AMAZING of Helmet Butte. OH YES! We hiked back to our packs and descended to the lower point of the pass for water.
After a nice rest and lots of water, we headed up towards High Pass, with a quick off trail stop to Liberty Cap, which has a treed summit and lots of marmot holes. The High Pass trail is lovely with beautiful views along the way. It was getting late and we had already climbed over 7K vert in 20 miles, so I reluctantly gave up Rally Cap in interest of finding a camp, eating and getting some sleep. We found a nice campsite before the boulder hop to the actual Pass. We set up my tarptent, enjoyed a gorgeous sunset and konked out until morning. Once again I slept great, but the guys got a little damp on the edges of the tarp so we laid everything out to dry while we climbed.
We set off with pleasingly light packs for Cirque and Napeequa peaks. At High Pass we found Eric again! He told us about his trip, isn't he amazing? (Yes, yes he is).
We followed the path of least resistance towards Cirque first, over pumice, sandy dirt, heathery terrain, boulders and a wee bit of snow. We aimed for the climber's right ridgeline, kicking steps up some annoying pumice slopes at times. The scrambling was interesting and of course we didn't find the easiest way up, but sometimes that's more fun. At the summit we saw the rock that people get so excited about and I see why. It's super exposed, overhanging, not necessarily attached to anything and has a wicked downclimb. After enjoying the summit for a very brief time we headed down towards Napeequa.
Napeequah looked less imposing from up close, but we decided that the climber's right ridgeline wasn't for us, it looked steep and slabby. We traversed low around the peak to the other ridgeline and then started up. Trace and I found the adventure route that didn't lead to the summit, while Riley stayed lower along some cairns. Trace and I did some sketchy downclimbing to meet him and we were off on a much easier route to the summit, which boasts spectacular views of the area and has space to chill. After enjoying it thoroughly, we headed back to camp to laze about in the sun. I toyed with the idea of heading to Rally Cap solo, but did yoga for long enough that I thought I didn't have time. So, while the guys packed up, I decided I had to at least get Cleator. I could do it in 45 minutes RT from camp.... right? I asked the guys to meet me somewhere along the way down from the pass, left my pack on the trail, and enjoyed a quick 22 minute ascent to the summit. I forgot my phone so no photos, but I thoroughly enjoyed the light pack speed hike up and 8 minute run back down. I caught up to the guys near the tarn below High Pass 1 hour after leaving camp and we started downhill together.
We were all transfixed by the beauty of the descent into the Napeequa. At times it was hard to walk. Fall colors were starting. Delicious berries to eat. Pasqueflower caught the light. Oh man. Progress was slow at times taking photos but eventually we descended to where the trail disappears along the river. We followed the river with occasional cairns and then noticed a clear trail forming on the other side, so we crossed. The trail dove into the bushes and downhill some steep dirt with an amusing vengeance. I chuckled my way down this incredibly steep dirt and in a short amount of time, found myself caught up to the guys at the Napeequa river below.
At this point we thought we were on an easy cruise river trail, but ah, not quite so. The terrain is mellow, for sure, but the trail goes through some really impressive slide alder and brush tunnels, some of which have swamps for trail beneath. About 1.5 miles in there was a single campsite, but we hoped to get farther down valley so we kept going. Other sections of trail are tall grass with a faint line that is the trail. We reached the Boulder Pass trail junction and although we'd expected perhaps a campsite here, there wasn't. We kept walking but didn't see any real campsite options and the trail was about to ascend. Rather than head up the notorious trail to Little Giant Pass in the dark, we bedded down in some tall flattened grass near the river, expecting that we'd end up wet overnight. We made dinner in the fading light and went to the sleep with the white noise of the river.
We all woke around 630 to find the tent frosty and the grass near the tent frozen. It hadn't seemed quite that cold, though... We carefully packed up, trying to keep our gear as dry as possible and were on the trail around 8am. The notorious trail to Little Giant Pass was as interesting as I'd hoped. We didn't manage to fall off the trail, but I can see how that would happen as in places it is very narrow and precipitous, or very steep, or has brush that tries to push you off the edge. Still, it's efficient and I definitely appreciated it. We were at the Pass by 9:30am and laid out wet gear to dry. We were feeling kinda lazy, but I insisted that we tag Trinity since it was really close by. You can stay on the ridge to the top, which you can enjoy a few feet of scrambling on. Views of the Napeequa valley are spectacular from the summit. We descended to our gear and lazed around a little more. A party of 3 came from the other direction, near Giant peak. We were surprised to meet Ozzy, Hans and their friend- my first time meeting those guys in person! We had a nice chat with them about their trip up Giant and then they headed downhill while we enjoyed our time at the pass another half hour.
The hike down didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped because there are a lot of blowdowns and a little pesky counter elevation but overall it was fine. The ford was soothing on my feet, the car shuttle went well. BTW: the Chiwawa River Road is in the best shape I've ever seen, really quite nice until almost to the Phelps junction. I was able to cruise out faster than expected, although oddly followed by a person in a full body furry frog suit on a dirt bike all the way to the stop sign near Plain. Total trip time: 2 full days and one half day. 39 miles + 13,500 gain.

mosey, Route Loser, Leafguy, Tom, williswall, contour5, neek, Opus, drewcoll, Nancyann, hot.choss, RichP, ONELUV1, ejain, rubywrangler  Apheta
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hot.choss
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hot.choss
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 8:11 am 
Bluebird wrote:
After seeing this photo I'm adding Cirque to my list! Beautiful trip

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Nancyann
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Location: Sultan Basin
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 9:41 am 
Beautiful pictures, what great timing for the weather! It looks like a very fun trip, made even more so when you ran into fellow NWHikers along the way! I ended up fording the Chiwawa on the way out from Buck Creek Pass ten days ago, tried pulling myself up that darn log, but it was just too steep. Kind of an unpleasant surprise after a long hike out. clown.gif

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Off Route Randy
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Joined: 29 Jan 2021
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Off Route Randy
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 11:25 am 
Awesome trip! It was a pleasure meeting y'all!

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raising3hikers
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Joined: 21 Sep 2007
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raising3hikers
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PostWed Sep 01, 2021 5:14 pm 
your group got a nice selection of peaks up.gif the best thing about not getting all the ones you wanted is - a good reason to return to such a beautiful area! thanks for the pic of the sunset, still can't believe i missed it, haha thanks for sharing your TR btw, loved that you got cleator

Eric Eames
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ozzy
The hard way



Joined: 30 Jul 2015
Posts: 475 | TRs | Pics
Location: University place, wa
ozzy
The hard way
PostWed Sep 01, 2021 8:05 pm 
Sweeeet trip y'all!! It was awesome meeting everyone...it's crazy running into some fellow NWhikers out in the wild! rocker.gif Until we meet again! Keep kickin ass! cheers.gif

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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Forum Index > Trip Reports > Buck Creek Pass- Napeequa- Little Giant Pass Loop plus the peaks! 8/28-30 2021
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