[popzeus]

Left work a little early on Friday to catch the ferry over to the peninsula and then drove to the Staircase entrance. We left the parking lot at 7:45 and hiked up the North Fork Skokomish trail to the junction with the Flapjack Lakes trail and camped for the night. The next day we hiked up to the lakes and set up camp there before hiking up to Gladys Divide. The trail to the lakes is snow free except for a few small patches right before the end. These are insignificant and will probably be gone in a week. The lakes are totally melted out and there are several campsites that are dry. It was raining on our way up and we noticed that the platform for the summer ranger station had a nice big tarp set up over it and a conveniently placed clothes line across it. We boiled some water and hung our wet stuff out to dry while we scouted out the best campsite. When we got back, we met a backcountry ranger named Ryan who had come up the trail after us. He had been sent up to clean up the trail to Gladys Divide. We were a bit embarrassed to have all of our stuff strung out across his platform, but he was really nice and we chatted with him for a while before moving down to one of the lakeside sites. After we set up camp we found the trailhead to Gladys Divide and headed up. There is one huge blowdown that consists of three trees early on, but very easy to get around. Steady snow about 1/4 mile in, but it is pretty easy to find the trail by looking for clean cut windfall (no one cuts the trees that don't fall across the trail). After another 1/4 mile, the snow is too deep for that, so we just bagged the trail and started walking straight uphill. There is probably 10 or 15 feet of snow by the time you get to the pass. The weather was transitioning as we hiked up over the snow. We had alternating sunshine and thick fog. It was really cool to watch the clouds move past the summit of Mt. Cruiser, sometime completely obscuring it and then revealing it again. The soft snow made it easy to get around, so we spent a couple of hours tromping around the area and glissading. Back at camp, the sun finally came out and we watched its reflection of the sawtooth peaks as we ate dinner. Aside from Ranger Ryan, we were the only party at the lake Saturday night. We saw several groups of day hikers on the way out Sunday.

Mount Gladys

What cornice?

Cornice at Gladys divide

Definitely marmot poop

Unquestionably goat poop

[bobbi]

thanks for the TR....looking forward to seeing your photos

[Tazz]

Your two pics of poop, marmot poop...goat poop.

[popzeus]

Thanks for the poop ID. We had a running joke about cougar poop for the entire trip. I shan't repeat it here...

[forest gnome]

soooo are the lakes stocked??

[popzeus]

The fish were jumping all evening and all morning. We didn't bring any equipment, but I would say it is a good time to get in a few casts with a fly rod.

[jhudson]

Heading up to the lakes this weekend. Good to see they are in good condition!

[forest gnome]

ya I figured they were stocked.....is there a good camp somewhere away from the main tourist area's?.....have raft will travel....OR just hike to the end of the lake....

[popzeus]

The park service requires you to register for campsites and camp in designated areas. They sent me a crude map of the lakes with six regular sites and one group site. We could only find 4 sites, so the others are probably snowed under still. The group site is the farthest from the rest on the other side of the land bridge separating the lakes and also the opposite side of the lakes from the trail. You have to cross the runoff from the upper lake or from the lower lake to get there. The water was pretty high and fast with all the snow melt that occurred this week, so we didn't try to do this, but it is moot if you have a raft.

[jhudson]

Yep, we had to call up and register. Got our registration this past week, only took a couple days to get.

[jhudson]

Of course if you are near the WIC you can just register there.

[popzeus]

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the registration process. I worked for an outfitter when I was in college and had to deal with park service reservations a lot for the trips we took students on. It was always a hassle to get the reservations done correctly and invariably the people I spoke to made it seem like it was a big inconvenience to talk to me. This time, I called up the WIC and talked to Scott (who was really nice and engaging). I gave him my debit card number and he emailed me my permit as a PDF 2 minutes later. It was nice not to have to stop and pick it up -- I wish they would do this with the Enchantments permits.

[silence]

taken on july 4th weekend 2006 -- it was a VERY hot day on the hike up to flapjack lakes .. when we arrived, even though we had a permit for the first night there (this is a quota area so they only issue so many) we found only one place left for us to camp .. sharing a larger site with another camper ... so even though it was late and we were tired and knew there would be some snow beyond ... we headed out and camped that night in a pretty basin below gladys pass; the next day we continued up to the pass (our final destination) and set up camp on the snow .. then day hiked over to mt gladys for distant views of olympus .. there wasn't nearly as much snow as you encountered .. in fact we saw plenty of flowers along the way ... ps .. there are many heather fields up at the pass and beyond once the snow melts .. plus many babbling brooks and tarns .. so tread lightly when visiting

Gladys Divide backpack

[popzeus]

As long as you were ok with camping on snow, camping up at the basin below the pass would be a great idea. I wonder if it would get you into any trouble with the rangers if you weren't in an established site? I have to say, I do like the fact that they limit the number of people in this area. With it's spectacular views, great fishing, and easy access, I can see it getting totally mobbed. Interestingly enough, we originally planned this hike as a loop. We were going to camp one night at the lakes, then scramble over Mt Gladys, detour down to Murdoch lakes and then see if we could make our way over to Black and White lakes to camp a second night. In the end, we had to shorten our trip by a full day due to work commitments. Then, with so much snow up in the pass and the schizo weather we were having, we weren't feeling real confident about the scramble. I would love to come back here again when there is less snow and complete the loop.

[silence]

off trail camping is permitted with certain restrictions of course .. and since there were essentially no sites left at the lake i think continuing further on the first night was probably ok because our permit was for the flapjack lakes/gladys divide zone anyhow .. as for the divide -- while some bare ground was available .. the quarters are extremely tight so we chose to camp on snow so we wouldn't impact the heather yes .. that loop is doable .. but the trip to do .. is head over to mt skokomish to lake of the angels and out .. that would be cool .. we met some guys coming up to gladys divide from there .. it's challenging, esp on the peak, but doable .. they were on snow most of the way which made it less of a swhack btw .. i was wrong .. in my mind i always remembered it was over the 4th .. but our permit says it was on the 18th and 19th