Conclusion
- the Craggies are better done in larch season. It's short enough to climb with shorter day light in autumn. Total: shy of 10 miles, maybe 6000' EG. Right now, already no snow to help the climb, so a lot of scree. Tons of mosquitoes.
- the 3 extra hikes we did near Rainy Pass are excellent choices this time of the year (or during larch season), if you can put up with the crowds of pests and people: the remaining snow makes the scenary much prettier, quite some flowers, wild animals (despite of the crowds).
- thick socks are needed for hard boots.
7/23, Saturday, we left Seattle ~8am, in thick clouds. Drove to Blue Lake TH. ~11:30am, the parking lot was full. Sunny here. Had to park along Hwy-20. Being an easy hike (4.4 mile RT, 1000'EG), it's very popular, but I had never visited it. Oops, forgot my wool socks!
Half way up, enters a small meadow, view starts to pop up, across from Hwy-20, and the Liberty Bell group. There they were, 2 goats: a baby and an adult.
A few muddy spots. Continue on. The lake is quite pretty. Yes, very blue and clear, but not glacier color. Some larches.
We walked to a small tarn nearby. Camping is not allowed near the lake.
Back as we came. On the way out, people stopped on both ends of the trail because of this bear.
He was very close to the trail. I walked on, tapping my pole on rocks, so not to startle him. I turned around to take a photo, and he looked at me and O, but continued eating grass.
Drove to Winthrope for some gas. Then onto Copper Glance TH. It was quite hot: the car indicated 91°F, ~3:30pm. One other car in the small pullout. O was debating whether to take her rainfly. Dark clouds ahead, so she stuffed it in.
There is a gate and sign for "road closed". Totally unnecessary. It is narrow like a trail, not drivable at all (see photo to the right with O).
Quite some flowers along the "road". Most notable is magenta paintbrush, silvercrown is at its end, yarrow, pearly everlasting, aster (more coming).
Saw 2 Collomia Grandiflora, some pink Iliamna Rivularis. Burnt trees all around. Saw a girl hiking out with a handfull of flowers.
There're two crossing over Copper Glance Creek, one very close to TH, one almost at the end. I filled water at the first.
About an hour later, we reached the meadowy slope, charred trees, rugged rocky ridge.
Reached the pond, too mosquito-y to make a base camp. The trail becomes faint here. Supposedly if you continue for less than 1/2 mile, you'd reach an overlook over Copper Glance Lake. We continued along the creek in NW direction. All bushwhacking now. Lots of downed charred logs. Slow progress. But we didn't need to go far. ~6pm, we found a small site for 2 tents, close to the creek, next to the rocks, more or less at the treeline. As we were pitching the tents, the rain started, with thunder. I had to crawl into the semi-erect tent to wait out the rain, ~1 hour. It certain surpressed some mosquitoes. Filled water, ate, too cold now to wash my shirt.
7/24, Sunday, climb day. We are using Ian Lauder's GPS track of 2020. Heading to West Craggy first. We started hiking ~6am with helmets on.
Follow the creek's left bank, hopping over rocks. 2 cute ponds, good reflection. Probably breeds mosquitoes.
Crossed to the right side, and up over steep (somewhat loose) rocks.
This part may be the most sketchy of the day.
Once reached the ridge, it is fairly easy, more of less stayed on the west side of the ridge. Great view from then on.
Here's O, who was way ahead of me.
Here is her signing the summit registry. I reached the summit at 8:40. She took a few photos of me on the summit.
Next Big Craggy.
We retraced the ridge half way, losing elevation.
Found the cutover (there's a cairn, and if not, it's kinda obvious where you'd need to turn).
Continued to lose about 1000' elevation.
Nice view of the small No Dice Lake.
Mostly fun and pretty ridge walk. Exposure, yes, but danger, not so much.
Looking behind for the West Craggy.
I kept on thinking the next bluff is the summit, but no... At least 3 times.
Finally, I saw O up there waiting.
This is the view on top of Big Craggy, looking west. I arrived ~11:10am.
Going down directly to the Copper Glance Creek drainage.
Backtraced only a bit, then a long rock screefield to go.
I didn't like this part, even though not as bad as coming down Robinson last June.
Bacm at camp ~1pm.
Here's more of less our route.
Packed up, and hiked out. More sunny (hotter) today.
The nicest stretch is the flowering slope around 5500'. Not much elevation gain, but good view to the valley behind and the peaks ahead.
On the way out, O stopped at the road's end, and we went in a bit to see the mine.
I didn't even see it on the way up.
For more info on the Copper Glance mine, checkout FS website.
Drove out on NF-5130, saw a small bear (brown fur) running away. We stopped, and he stopped too. A little too far for phone camera. O stopped at Winthrope for meal. I read my book, and ate my cold-soaked backpack meal. It was 95°F.
Parked at Bridge Creek TH parking, and crossed the Hwy-20, and walked PCT for ~1 mile (mostly flat, lost some minor elevation) to its junction to Copper Pass / Stiletto Lookout trail.
We were planning to hike to Stiletto Peak tomorrow.
Found a campsite near State Creek. Washed, hung my shirt on a tree. My left nose started bleeding. Too hot.
Only then, we realized that the bridge is out. Looked for a crossing, found a possible log, but it ends in bushes on the other side. We discussed an alternative.
When we chatted after dinner (not as buggy as last night), a young guy walked to our camp, and pitched his bivy close to O. He's from Germany, looks Asian, perfect English. He is going PCT south bound. Just hiked from Harts Pass all the way here (~33 miles), and was going to Stehekin tomorrow (~17 miles). He said it was very buggy all day today (the one factor he contributed to his 33 mile day). His backpack is about the size of my day pack (~20L). Definitely no stove. We didn't see him cook, nor eat. Only saw him filter water.
7/25, Monday, sunny, very warm. Maple Pass loop, a classic at Rainy Pass.
Packed out ~6am, drove to Rainy Pass TH, repacked for the day hike. In fact, we could have walked there via PCT. Probably take the same amount of time. Monday morning, the giant parking are was rather empty, and we weren't sure where is the TH proper. We headed up to Maple Pass first, aiming for Frisco Mt.
As we approached the tree line, we saw this grouse cooing for mate. He stood there, right by the trail, called many times. It was ~8:10am. That alone made my day!
Once emerged to the glacier lily filled meadow, the view is spectacular, so were the mosquitoes.
Most lily was still coming. Quite some pasqueflowers. Larches. Snow was melting everywhere, very pretty.
This marmot was sunning.
At about 6950', there's a junction. We could see some snow on the way to Frisco Mountain. Since we didn't bring spikes, O decided to sit this one out, and I ventured up left, following a visible track.
Snow can be avoided, for at least 2 bumps that I went up to. Definitely exposed, sometimes very narrow.
I turned around before a steep drop, view is excellent. Some phlox on the rocks.
We continued on the loop, loosing elevation now, until about 6600 at Maple Pass.
Lots of snow along this stretch, views to all directions.
Seeing people coming from opposite direction. Lots of people. Tracks on snow was well defined.
Then we headed up to a gentle bump, marked as Heather Pass Peak on one version of Gaia Map, following a faint boot track.
This is an excellent choice. You can see Lewis Lake from here.
We encountered only one person here. I sat against a snowbank, half in the shade. Not too many mosquitoes.
Back to the main drag. Crowds. Snow lingered on the zigzag all the way to Heather Pass.
Some hikers even turned around. Some are better prepared than O and I, and they wore spikes.
O plans to drive out at 3pm. So we walked to Rainy Lake from the same parking lot. It's only a flat mile, mostly in shade, all paved for wheelchair/stroller. There are also ~3 nice benches along the way. A large "deck" and another bench at the end of the pavement. The lake is quite lovely. Can climb down to the water, but it was too sunny. We hid in the shade and rested, before walking back to the car.
My left eye was getting quite bad. I threw away the contact lens, but the tears didn't manage to expel any foreign particle. I practically drove home with just one eye. We stopped at a Mexico restaurant for O at Arlington (91°F), and a gas stop. Cheap gas here by I-5. No traffic. Arrived back in Seattle shortly before 7pm. The car registered 88°F. Will be hotter the next few days.
