[Cyclopath]

[Cyclopath]

It'll be ten years since I hiked Cascade Pass to Stehekin later this summer. It started a "hiking to Stehekin" addiction for me for a few years. What a great place to end a backpacking trip! You can arrange for a soft bed and hot shower, but you're still surrounded by incredible outdoor beauty. The off grid nature of the place means the only entertainment is nature itself. Go enjoy the lake, hike to a waterfall, hike to the garden, rent a bike, bring it up the mountain on the shuttle, ride back down, or rent a kayak. Here are some photos from when I did this hike.

[bccarlso]

Having wanted to visit Stehekin for years, are these the two paths being discussed? I think they're both primarily in NCNP, and being largely along the PCT, are permits super hard to get? I haven't yet camped along the PCT. Just spitballing about how possible it would be to do this at some point, or if it's quite difficult to line up.

[Cyclopath]

Those both look correct. In general, there are a lot of camps along the route. Like, if you wanted to hike from Cascade Pass to Stehekin and stay in every camp asking the way it'll take you two weeks. You might not get a permit for every specific camp you want but shouldn't? have trouble getting permits to make it work. But I'm just some idiot on the internet. Don't take me at my word here, have a plan and a backup plan too.

[Mountainpines]

Beautiful photos!

[Mountainpines]

[Mountainpines]

[Mountainpines]

[bccarlso]

Thanks Cyclopath. Yeah, for me it would probably be two nights on the trail. Horseshoe Basin looks pretty incredible, I wouldn't want to miss that. Might look into doing it a bit more seriously this year or next.

[Cyclopath]

If you can get a permit for Basin Camp, there's a giant waterfall visible from the camp. I wish I had stayed there.

[letsgobobby]

my 8 year old and i did Cascade Pass to Stehekin. To date one of our favorite trips. After Cascade it's almost all downhill or flat. If you have time for Horseshoe Basin that's a worthy side trip.

[bccarlso]

[letsgobobby]

it was about six years ago and we got walk in permits. Pelton Basin, Basin Creek, Park Creek I think. Wonderful hike for a young backpacker.

[Worthington]

The non permit requiring version is to start up the Twisp River and hike in via South Pass, or War Creek, or even Oval Lakes. The more deluxe version is via Spider Meadows or Entiat to Holden (mail ahead some clothes and food) and stay there or camp there and get icecream, then hike to Stehekin from Holden Via Agnes or via 10mile or Company Creek, to Stehekin, where you have sent ahead your "town clothes" and pillow and big air mattress.

[letsgobobby]

we had a reservation at Holden for the bus ride and a sandwich and planned to hike in over Spider but - this was ?2 years ago - big nearby fires the weekend of our trip had us cancel. Last year we planned to take the boat halfway uplake and overnight backpack 17 miles of the Lakeshore trail, but there were huge thundercells forecast for the first day and we bagged - that Lakeshore trail is very exposed and either lightning or flooding could have been a problem. In both cases we took the boat in a day or three later and used our Stehekin reservations , just without the backpack. I'd atill like to get in over Spider.