2017.8.24-27 White Pass - Pilot Ridge loop

White Pass - Pilot Ridge loop offers supreme mountain scenery, endless alpine meadows, once you get up to PCT. The 4 day itinerary allows us to explore the area with a day pack on day 2, definitely recommend this. We were ~3 weeks too late for prime flowers. No mosquitoes, some small flies last day on Pilot Ridge. Abundant huckleberry.

8/24 - day 1, Thursday. Thick clouds. Ashley picked me up at Sunset TC at 6:40am, drove to Zach's. Then we all piled into Zach's car towards Verlot ranger station after a couple of breaks, some traffic. Zack bought this Greentrails map with more trails than on my National Geographic map (I put in a wrong backpack anyway. Not recommend that map: doesn't even have milesage!) and on any of my GPS maps on my phone. The road after Barlow Pass (Monte Cristo town) is gravel, slow going in a small passenger car. A vault toilet at trailhead. Talked to the Darrington District ranger who just cleaned the toilet. We didn't start hiking until about 1:30pm.

First 5-6 miles are easy, nice maintained trail, mostly soft. A bit up and down, easy. Quite some big trees. We may saw Chicken-in-the-woods. Giant skunk cabbage in the first mile, then giant devil's club in the 2nd mile. At mile ~2, junction to Pilot Ridge trail. An MSR tent there, looked abandoned. A few camp sites along the way with signed toilet. Mackinaw Shelter at mile 6 is a joke, barely standing. We filled water here as every source recommends. Not much horse droppings, nor muddy as I encountered in 2009. The next 3 miles gain 2800'. The grade is steeper in the first mile. Luckily the temperature was cool today, quite cloudy. There are enough trees to rest in shade. Once you start to break out of the tree line, ~5pm for us, the view gets better the higher you go. By 6pm, we were in alpine meadows. Eventually hit PCT at about 9 miles from TH, elevation 6100'. All around is flowering slope. Now mostly browned corn lilies and lupine pods. Some fireweed for color. The next 0.5 miles to White Pass (turn right) has plenty little streams. A side trail goes down to camp area sheltered by trees. Quite a number of tents here already. There are 2 wooden toilet boxes (I only saw one), a tiny stream at the other end, both not too convenient. The sun was setting. View is obscured by the trees. I left both of my headlamps in the other pack:( Almost tripped over at the toilet. Cooked dinner, using my Kindle as light source. Went to bed just past 9:30pm, with a bottle of hot water at my feet.

8/25 - day 2, Friday. Cloudy - Sunny. The night was very cold. The pail of water I fetched for our camp had ice formed on the top. Surprisingly, I slept ok in a 45F bag and a liner (I wore wool base layer and down sweater in the bag). I got up at 5:30am, and headed up to the ridge of White Pass for photos. Lots of dew, some frost on ground. Crawled back in to my sleeping bag until the sun reached the camp. It dried the wet tent fly quickly.

Today we did a big loop (shown on Greentrails map): NE to White River valley (Chelan County), cross the ridge N to Foam Creek valley, over a short pass NW, all the way N to the foot of White Chuck Glacier, up NE to the climbing route, back down SW the kidney shaped lake's outlet, down to White Chuck River valley, up on PCT and back. About 12-13 miles without the climbing route spur (I underestimated it as 9-10 miles). Lots of ups and downs. Gorgeous scenery. Many lakes, marmots, boulders. Some route finding and scrambling. My favorite day of this trip.

At White Pass, a smaller trail goes NE. More or less leveled for about a mile. Good view to the White River Valley, and back at White Pass. The trail goes above a small ridge, and down steeply to the small Foam Creek basin, and immediately go up again to another ridge. Here the view is splendid. Here I climbed the small knoll to the left of the trail, while my company happily waited at the ridge. Even before reaching the top of the knoll, you can see Baker. The top is more or less flat, and view is expansive and beautiful. Good to survey the terrain we'd embark on for the rest of the afternoon.

Down and up a bit to the lake basin, cross many tarns, big and small. About 6500'. Total alpine playground. No more trees. A few grass and flowers clenching to the ground. There's no one else for miles. Had lunch by this tarn, big enough to be a lake. Pristine water. Clouds departed as we ate, and the sky turned blue. Retook all photos by the water. Saw another couple coming this way.

Continued over to the foot of White Chuck Glacier. It's massive. A climber with broken clothes caught up on us. He planned to climb Glacier Peak the next day. All 4 of us hopped boulders and walked higher to the next cairn. At some point, Zach and Ashley decided to turn back. Me and the climber continued to this basin, where he said he'd camp. He wasn't happy how little snow was left. I guess this is Glacier Gap. Up front, I could see snowfield, which would lead towards the summit.
Down as I came, excellent view of the basin below. However, not exactly the same trajectory. Once again, I couldn't find my pack, and it's grey! I spent the next 40 minutes franticly looking my backpack, slipped twice over the rocks, got both elbows bloody.

By the time I found my pack and my companions, they were getting restless. We hiked out the outlet of the kidney-shaped lake. It's big and pretty, rimmed with bright moss. No trails in the basin. We followed the map, keeping the lake and the stream to our right. Eventually we found the trail down to the valley, where the lake water tumbled down in pretty cascades. At the bottom, you can see another stream tumbling down to join this one. The valley below looks very inviting. Green, lush, big patches of pink fireweed. Once we reached the valley floor, trail disappeared again. Crossed the streams (easy now). We bushwhacked upslope the west side of the valley until we hit PCT. All afternoon, the climber was the last person we met until PCT - the highway of the backcountry.

Many zigzags up to Red Pass. Sun was setting, we had to hasten our pace. Dusty. Met two solo PCT through hikers, then a group of 3 guys camping in the small space at Red Pass. While waiting for Ashley, I scrambled up the knoll to the left. A bit too dark to take a good photo. It was already 8pm. Chilly. Had to put on my fleece. The rest 2 miles we walked nonstop in moonlight. More or less flat. Zach waited for us at the turnoff to the camp. It's a bit steep there. His headlamp is much appreciated.

The night wasn't as cold as yesterday. Little condensation on the tent.

8/26 - day 3, Saturday. Bright sunshine. Mostly on PCT today. Easy grade, well trodden. At times, the trail is deeply eroded like a ditch. Lots of through hikers, and some section hikers. Saw a grouse. Fall color was starting. Huckleberry everywhere. One guy at White Pass camp was doing PCT. He started on March 1st, and went through Sierra with full winter snow gear. He loved it. He also likes the desert, because the flowers were exceptional this spring. All others we met today started later, except for one guy who did the southern Sierra (and loved it), all skipped the entire Sierra due to record high snow. All mentioned Goat Rocks being their favorite sections so far (other than Sierra).

I don't understand why Indian Pass is a low point in a small meadow, according to the map. Quite pleasant, no water, plenty berries. Gain elevation to the ridge (which I call it Indian Pass) with side trail to Kodak Peak. We had lunch hiding in the shade of a campsite (no water). Afterwards, I headed up to Kodak Peak, while my two companions rested. Past another camp site. Dry and hot. Huckleberries here were low lying and red. Met the couple (from White Chuck basin of yesterday) on my way up. Lots of flying ants on the top, hard to even take a photo. Good views here. When I came back, saw Zach's pack next to mine, but nobody. It turns out that Ashley took off in the wrong direction, and Zach went to chase her back. Poor girl was dripping with sweat when she returned.

Continued on PCT below Kodak Peak to Dishpan Gap, not interesting. 4 trails here. We left PCT and took Bald Eagle Trail signed for Blue Lake. Next intersection, we took Blue Lake high route (unmaintained for stock). Quite brutal: south facing, no shade, and steadily going up. Very hot around 3pm. Good autumn color. Once reached the ridge, very good view. Headed down a steep trail toward Blue Lake, at the foot of Johnson Mountain. The lake is true to its name, looks very inviting.

Arrived at Blue Lake just before 4pm, dripping with sweat. Stopped at the first flat spot by the lake, an obvious tent site (big, but has 2 piles of horse droppings). Washed up, cooked dinner, overall chilled here by the water for a long time. Didn't bother to check out the lower Little Blue Lake (didn't want to lose ~500'). Saw fish jumping. Zach found the leak in his pad. Patched it. He didn't like camping at the bottom of the lake basin, thinking that the cold air would sink in the bottom. We set up our tents higher up in the trees, with a "private" beach access, but quite steep. Already a few tents here and there. More people arrived later. A few bugs, not an issue.

Warm night. I got up around 12:30, and walked to the lake to see stars reflecting in the lake. They twinkle more in water.

8/27 - day 4, Sunday. Not much of a sunrise: hazy. I woke up everyone at 6:15am, as they suggested. Departed 1 hour later. A bit confusing of all the side trails near the lake. Eventually we were on the right track (right below where I camped) towards Johnson Mountain, gaining elevation steadily. The air was still cool in the early morning. No one wanted to scale Johnson Mountain (only 0.5 miles one way). The next mile is my favorite of the day: flowering slope with clear view to the mountains to the south. Many ups and downs, seems to take forever. Temperature was rising, and we could smell smoke. We made two rest stops, the last one at a small heather meadow before the final descent.. Quite steep at first, then it was zigzag.

~5.5 hours after we left camp, we reached the bottom of the forest: North Fork Sauk River. Many big logs fell over the river. Zach wanted to cool off, so walked into the river in his crocs, and promptly lost one. Ashley is afraid of log walking, so she tried to wade the river bare feet. Bad idea. Tried again with boots. I waited for them on the log. There isn't a trail obvious at the other bank. So bushwhacked about 100 ft to find the trail. That MSR tent was still there! 2 miles later, we were at the parking lot. Ashley got some hotspots on her feet due to wet shoes and socks. I found that the food I left in the car attracted some rat. I hope it's not living in Zach's car.

Drove to Granite Falls for an early dinner (~4pm). We randomly picked Buzz Inn Steakhouse. Very happy with cold beer and AC. Food was good, and the waitress was friendly. Forest fire smoke was still in the air, and it was very warm: close to 90°F. Long drive home without incident. I got home around 10:30pm.

Total about 44-45 miles, maybe 9-10K feet gain. The steps my phone registered: 29k, 43k, 29k, 34k.

2017.8.21 Total Solar Eclipse with my nephew

The adventure started on 8/18, at least for my nephew. He got on a Greyhound bus to Portland which is scheduled to arrived at 10:10pm. However, due to a Seahawks game, his bus was late for 1.5 hours, and the southbound bus from Seattle to Portland departed without them, and all the southbound stops on his schedule were canceled. Not sure if it's unwillingness to get another bus or drivers, or incompetent to get both, they were forced to spent the night in Seattle, after repeated attempts to board some bus. I was chained to the phone until way past midnight.

8/19, Saturday. My nephew finally arrived after a 12.5 hours delay, tired, and me too. I managed to secure a ride for my planned eclipse outing after last minute cancellation yesterday. After cleaning up, it was already 1pm. I abandoned the idea of checking out this year's PCT Day. Cancelled my rental car reservation ($80/day). Instead, we headed into town. First stop, Ken's Bakery. Always excellent here.

Walked to REI, but didn't buy anything. The store was very busy. Probably thanks to the eclipse tourism.

Walked to Powell's City of Books. Lots of people here too. Since he finished his book on his long journey here, I bought a book for his return bus trip. Checked out Powell's Rare Book Room. The photos here are the oldest book (De Bello Judaico @1480) and the most expensive book (on Lewis and Clark expedition @1814 for $25000) in Powell's collection.

We finished the day with a beer flight and more food after a walk by the waterfront. No one checked his ID. One more dish after this photo was taken.

Packing for the eclipse camping trip. The Six Moon Design backpack I bought him two years ago, finally could put in proper use.

8/20, Sunday, met with Marc at Gateway TC hoping for a 4th person to sign up my last minute trip. Drove to Red Lake TH. ~2 hours, no traffic. Part of the drive was on Hwy224, parallels Clackamas River, quite scenic. The last mile is gravel, but wide and in decent shape. Already about a dozen cars parked at TH. Our goal is Potato Butte, but that's for tomorrow morning.

The first mile and half goes up, cross power lines, and continues until the Lake Basin, where the grade eases. Red Lake to the right. Averill Lake is bigger, and looks pretty, right by the trail. A few tents here already. Continued to Wall Lake. Again, a number of tents were at different corners. We pitched tents close to a small group (they arrived on Thursday, and hung big bath towels and this Sun Shower) at the SE side of the lake. The lake is pleasant, but without much view.

My nephew was not feeling so well, so he stayed at the camp. Marc and I headed east to scout the turn-off to Potato Butte, and check out more lakes in this scenic area. The next, Sheep Lake is nice. I would have camped there. It has some meadows on both ends (a bit damp). After that, there are more up and downs than I thought. No one camped at Middle Lake. Marc turned around at Lower Lake, which is big and quite pretty, and can be reserved (yes, FULL). I continued on to the road towards Ollalie Lake. The road here is still wide, but more rough. A lot of cars parked by the road. Saw some just camp by the road (no water), some at First Lake (you can swim there), and then Head Lake (view of Jefferson). Ollalie Lake is beautiful, overlooking Jefferson, at the moment hazed over by forest fire. Saw a couple walking with 2 mules here. This is a "resort", campsite and cabins (FULL), a general store, a ranger cabin. Busy. Some tent site has great view. Swimming is prohibited in Ollalie Lake (water source for the resort), but you can row canoes here.

To continue my loop, I looked for PCT. There were quite a number of people at the PCT TH. One guy (R.J.) was a trail angel, ferrying thru-hikers around Jefferson Wilderness (closed due to fire). He had to bail out of his own thru-hike earlier this year due to foot injury, and was helped by a trail angel. He offered me a Coors Light. My water bottle was running low, so it was timely. PCT southbound here is almost due west. At some points you had good view of the south: Jefferson, Ollalie Butte, Ollalie Lake, and the burned acres (from old fire). Mostly in the woods. Even though there are many lakes close by, the trail doesn't go by any, other than Scharf Lake, very small and busy. Not pretty at all. There's a confusing turn with multi trail junctions, where I headed back to camp.

Relaxed at the camp. Waited by the shore for sunset. One old guy in the group was telling stories, and shouted at the bugs on the lake a few times. A young couple also pitched tent in this area. The girl washed dirty dishes in the lake, which I felt compelled to talk to her. They also left the fire smoldering all night, which I only found out the next morning, and they were gone. That's how forest fire starts sometimes. Left them a note.

8/21, Monday. Warm night. I got out to see stars around 4:30, already too late. Moon had risen. Even thought it was new moon, there was a glow in the horizon. Still could see milky way. The lake wasn't still, so only the brightest stars were flickering in the water.

My nephew was having diarrhea. So the two of us had a late start, after some cleanup. Around 8, we headed towards Potato Butte. We passed by a good size meadow. A lake is a short walk away, not seen from the trail. Then the trail gets steep. The first lookout is a rocky overhang, view of Jefferson, and 4 lakes below. We continued to the top, and found Marc. A bit wooded here, but you can see Hood between the trees. There was one tent. No birds here. We all waited here for the moon to move in, slowly. It went from the top right to the bottom left. The first 20 minutes, couldn't tell that the moon was there. Only when the sun was more than 90% covered, the sky started to dim. For a whole 2 minutes, it looked like dusk in all directions, with orange glow 36°. Temperature dropped significantly. Wind picked up. Took off the eclipse shade and took a couple of photos with my phone. When the light began again, people were walking about on the butte and chatting. We didn't wait for the eclipse to finish, and hiked down.

Packed out, and back at TH around 1:30pm. No traffic, per se, all the way. A bit slow making a left turn at Estacada, and a bit rush hour traffic back in Portland. Marc dropped us off downtown, where we caught a train home around 4pm. All worked out exceedingly well.

Looked up online for my last solar experience, and confirmed that I saw an annular solar eclipse on Sep 23, 1987. Next annular eclipse will pass central Oregon on Oct 14th, 2023. Next total eclipse on this continent will be on April 8th, 2024, more to the east.

8/22, Tuesday. Back in office, half of my co-worker stayed put. One went up north the weekend just to avoid the eclipse. Oddly enough, everyone I know who made an effort to go to the totality zone didn't encounter traffic. One went to the coast early morning on Monday, even though it was cloudy, the clouds stayed low, so didn't obstruct the view. She reported seeing sea birds got frantic. One went to Round Lake, which is only a dozen miles from me. A Seattle friend of mine drove down to Portland on Sunday, and headed to north Salem Monday early morning, went back to Seattle ahead of the crowd. Funny that another Seattle friend of mine who didn't care for the eclipse got stuck in traffic driving through Oregon from California.

Went to a meetup after work with my nephew on open source software. We both enjoyed it.

8/23, Wednesday. Put him on a bus north. Despite of a late start, he arrived more or less on time.

2017.8.12-13. A Smorgasbord - REI, Caving, Backpacking, Canyons, no meteor shower

8/12 Saturday. To accommodate those who wanted to shop at REI Garage Sale (more below in footnote), the meeting was set at 11:30am. I took a bus to my local REI store and took the same bus back. This bus runs once an hour, so I had ~30 minutes. But that was enough. I was there for 15 minutes. Quite crowded, and not a whole lot of things.

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11:30 AM, 9 of us met at Gateway. I was the first one who arrived, and only 3 were on time. We gathered at Trail of Two Forests Interpretive Site, where the first party of 2 were scouting. This is a 5 minute walk to Lake Cave, which has a ladder to get down. I got in the group of 6 to explorer Little Red River Cave (limited access to 6 person per day) a couple of miles further. Using some USFS map, we looked for it for some time. Stumbled over this hole. You'd better be careful walking around here, so not to fall into something like this. We found another cave (marked on the map). But no entrance.

By the time Chris found LRR, it was past 3pm already. The small door has 3 locks. 1 not locked. You can check out the keys from FS ranger station. The access is limited due to all-year-round water in the cave, which hosts some probably interesting organisms. The first, and the main obstacle, just steps from the gate, requires a rope to rappel down. There're 2 fixed anchors. David setup the rope, he's the only climber in the group.
3 of us who didn't bring a harness shared Chris'. It took awhile to get everyone down and later up. We used another rope in a second drop, but it was easier, and only a nail on the rock for anchoring. The wall is moist, but no water in the beginning. Then some drips seep through the ceiling. Eventually a stream is forming. . We were instructed not to walk into the water. So had to return at this point, where the narrow channel is filled with water. I took the group photo. Most of the cave is a lava tube. We did see some shrimp like worm towards the end, by the water. I should have worn hiking boots. I was wearing some water shoes (not good for slippery rocks), could feel sharp edges of the rocks, and no ankle support. Thanks to Chris' helmet. I did bump my head to the ceiling multiple times. He also brought 3 pairs of knee pad. So, 6 of us each has one! That was a good idea too. The cave is pleasantly cool.

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After the cave adventure, around 7pm, 8 of us hiked to June Lake for the night. It's an easy walk, less than 2 miles. Jerry and Chris carried a huge backpack. Chris had 2 tents, 2 chairs and 1 umbrella! I pitched my tent a short distance away. Some of us found logs and set a camp fire. A warm night. Thick clouds. Could see one star (maybe Jupiter?), no meteor shower even though Perseid is supposed to peak tonight. I escaped to my tent, when the rain started. Almost 11pm already.

8/13, Sunday. Rained all night, not heavy, nor windy. A warm night. Their 7 tents were cramped together, like a village. A creek to the left, but a bit brown. After breakfast, I walked to June Lake, misty. We packed up, and got back to our cars ~10am.

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Drove almost an hour to Lower Lewis River area. Stopped by Eagle Cliff campground for bathroom and coffee. Of course it was sunny now. They have a very old gas pump, which I've never seen alike. 20 minutes later, we parked at an unmarked pullout, met up Wade and Mike. Wade had explored this creek before. Now, the 10 of us walked on some trail for a few minutes, met a lady from Seattle who was running Bigfood 200 race. It's the 3rd day, she's done about half. 189.4 miles this year, nonstop. She said she slept 1 hour last night. She looked quite tired. The fastest this year finished in a 2 days 8 hours.

We soon reached a creek. My guess is Crab Creek, but not certain. Here we got down to the creek bed and walked upstream. Some of us brought felt soled wading shoes to help tracking. Some brought dry bags. They are all better prepared than I was. We hit our first waterfall fairly quickly. At this waterfall, we had to go up the steep hill and come down on the other side. Once we reach the other side, we back tracked to the waterfall just to see it from above.

The creek bed has some very green and red rocks. Water is clear. Plenty cascades. Quite pretty. The drizzle started again, but it doesn't matter, since we were all wet. Sometimes we walked on very wide and flat surface, which made me think of a road. Most of the time, we were scaling one boulder or another. Again, my water shoes performed badly over slippery moss and log. We turned around at this 2nd waterfall. Scaled the steep slope (not as bad as previously) to the top, and eventually hiked onto a trail. By then, my pants were cut, a lot of scratches from oregon grapes, and wild raspberry. Surprisingly no one got hurt other than scratches and bruises.

Back at the Eagle Cliff campground. Wade and Mike took off. Jun bought two pizzas to share. I bought a 6-pack. Only 5 of the 8 of us drink alcohol, another surprise.

I got home around 8pm. This concludes a fun and action packed weekend. What's an adventurous group of strangers.


REI garage sale:. Local REI stores sell returned merchandise at ~50% MSLP or lower (if reported defected) about once a quarter on a Saturday. Stores open 9-4 for this member only event (normal business hour starts at 10am). Bargain hunters often line up hours before the stores open. The next day (Sunday at 10am), all the unsold junk will be at the downtown Portland REI store at 50% of Saturday price. The downtown store (the only one in PDX REI that rents gears) may also sell their rental equipment. All items are sold as is, not return accepted. This Saturday, one organizer of this event bought 2 kayaks. He was the 2nd person in line at 4:45am. The person before him bought 7 kayaks! Many shoppers resell their junk on eBay. So watch what you buy on eBay. If it's marked with an X, that's probably from one of these REI garage sales. I bought a day pack and a tent. I shall try the tent in the shower first to make sure it doesn't leak. The return tag said "nothing wrong, just too small" - hope it's correct. Obviously used, because it wasn't cleaned. Some people are pigs. They abuse any courtesy.