[HikingBex]

Spent most of this week staying in Winthrop and doing hikes that are just a little too far from Seattle for me to do on a typical weekend. I was overall so pleasantly surprised by how little smoke we encountered (at least while hiking, it was moderately bad in Winthrop) and how amazing the fall colors were. Cutthroat Pass (10/3/22) I got very nervous as we drove up to the Rainy Pass TH because there were about 40 cars already parked along Highway 20. Thankfully they were all for Heather Maple Pass (at 10am on a Monday!) and we easily found a spot in the Rainy Pass parking lot. The trail was in the usual great PCT condition. Larches are still pretty lime green in the area, but the red blueberry bushes are absolutely stunning right now. We found a faint path up to the notch NE of Cutthroat Pass and got some nice views over to Golden Horn & Tower. Saw around 10 people total.

Horsehead Pass & Upper Eagle Lake on the Sawtooth Lakes Loop (10/4/22) Larches here were absolutely stunning. My boyfriend was annoyed we had to hike 5 miles through the woods/without many views to get to them, but I thought it was quite worth it. Beautiful views from Horsehead Pass, and Upper Eagle Lake was so lovely. I would love to come back and do the whole loop one day. Encountered only a few other hikers, 2 mountain bikers, and 2 motor bikers the whole day.

Windy Pass (10/5/22) Very happy to find that the road to Harts Pass was open despite the WTA website claiming it's still closed. Beautiful, mellow hike along the PCT from the trailhead near Slate Peak with larches from the very start. On our way up we could see Jack Mountain clearly and even to Mt Baker, but on the way back both were obscured by smoke. The PCT is closed north of Windy Pass right now due to fires, and I was tickled to find that they had actually roped off the trail there. We had noticed a yurt to the west of Windy Pass on the hike in, and decided to go check it out. Turns out its used by North Cascades Heli Skiing for their winter backcountry trips, and there was also an old abandoned cabin nearby. I'm wondering if this was maybe leftover from the Barron mining settlement nearby (although it didn't look quite old enough to me for that)? There was also an outhouse that had a pretty recent looking roll of toilet paper in it, so not sure what the whole story is there. Only saw a few people (and no PCT hikers) all day. Ended the day with a quick trip up Slake Peak for some great views of the Pasayten with most everything else in smoke.

yurt from far away

[Roly Poly]

Wow, beautiful. I wish I wasn’t so scared to drive to Harts pass.