Independence & North Lakes

Independence Lake is a short, kid friendly hike to a small lake with a few trout, a worthwhile destination in its own right, but too short for much of a workout, so we headed up the trail towards North Lake. I would classify this hike as moderate, but it does head up agressively for two steep miles to a ridge where you either admire the view then head back down, or drop down 700' to the lake, which means 700' elevation gain on the way back (plus another 200' coming up from Independence Lake).
It's best to start early on a hot day. The route has plenty of exposure to sun, and the people we saw coming up in the afternoon looked uncomfortably hot in the 80 degree weather.
There is flagging tape to seperate the trail from some social paths to campsites at the end of Independence Lake, as well as to mark the trail up a boulder field to North Lake. The trail branches off here, left up the boulders to the ridge or right on a level path to an unnamed tarn with beautiful views towards a peak known as the Devils Thumb and a lovely campsite with a "big sky" view. The tarn is definately worth the short side trip, and makes a great destination for those disinclined to greater exertion. The blueberries were large and tasty.

Mount Pilchuck

Mount Pilchuck is one of the classic trails in Washington. Jutting out 30 miles west of the main massif of the Cascade mountains, it rises a mile above Puget Sound and has a 360 degree panorama that includes Mount Baker, Mount Rainier and the Olympic Mountains, 3 National Parks and a dozen wilderness areas.
While the views are spectacular during the day, it's the sunrises and sunsets that really take your breath away, so we decided to take an "illegal" (it's a day use only site) camping trip there the evening of July 4th. Talk about a balcony seat! The show was awesome, fireworks as far as the eye could see. We spent the night camped in the lookout.
The hike is 6 miles round trip, witha 2400' elevation gain, slogging up snowfields and over bouklders, a hard slog with a 40 pound pack but well worth the effort. Bug spray, sunscreen and sunglasses are a must, and trekking poles help on the snow. If you take only one hike this year, this is the one.

Barlow Point

After hiking the much too crowded Lake 22 trail (we'd hoped the rain would keep the crowds away, but it didn't, not even the woefully unprepared sneakers and sweatshirt people), so we went on an additional hike to Barlow Point.
The trailhead is at Barlow Pass. A hike of 1.2 miles and 800' elevation gain, this moderately easy trail starts by going slightly down hill under a long rock wall (pretty hanging purple flowers here...penstamon?), then begins a series of switchbacks with no level areas (those not used to hiking might need to pause for a breather on the way) through a forest of second growth timber. This is a fairly boring trail, with little understory vegetation, mostly sticks and fir needle duff on the ground, but can be a great educational walk when showing friends why clearcuts are bad forestry, a mirror opposite of the lush and lovely Lake 22 Research Natural Area.
There's no lake or stream on the way, and no views to speak of. So why bother?
Because when you reach the site of an old fire lookout at the top of this 3200' knob, you'll find lovely views up the Sauk river towards Mt. Pugh, across to Sheep Mountain, and down the Stillaguamish to Big Four and Hall Peak, as well as Twin Peaks and Mt. Dickerman. The rocky summit provides nice "chairs" to lounge on, and unlike other hikes in the neighborhood you'll probably have the trail to yourself.
On the return trip, turn off at the trail marked "Railroad Grade" and follow the path of the old Everett & Monte Cristo Railway back to the trailhead parking lot.

Deception Creek

We chose Deception Creek because it was a day of low clouds and little visibility, and there are no real views on this trail, except for a brief glimpse of Spark Plug Mountain from a landslide-opened area at about 3 1/2 miles. The trail and the creek the "view" here. You enter the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in about 1/2 mile and begin a slow but steady climb, above and away from the creek, but always within earshot.
After 3 miles you've already gained most of your elevation for this hike. The creek again makes contact with the trail, and there are supposedly camp sites here, but they were still under snow as of this date. Intermittent snow covers the trail in places from here on, becoming continuous at about 4 miles until you reach Fisher Creek at 5 1/2 miles. Deception Creek was awesome on the second half of the trail, narrowing into ravines, tumbling over pools and basins, with so many waterfalls I lost count. At Fisher Creek it is possible to cross on downed logs and continue to Deception Lakes & Pass, but that would require an overnight trip, so this is a good turn around for a day hike, round trip of about 11 miles.
A big shout out to our fellow WTA members who built a number of bridges, large and small, along this trail. We stayed safe and dry. Thanks volunteers!
When you're done, don't forget to stop at the nearby Deception Falls viewing area, just west of the trail on the north side of HWY 2. It's a short trail, just a few hundred feet, and the falls are quite impressive there.
We chose Deception Creek because it was a day of low clouds and little visibility, and there are no real views on this trail, except for a brief glimpse of Spark Plug Mountain from a landslide-opened area at about 3 1/2 miles. The trail and the creek the "view" here. You enter the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in about 1/2 mile and begin a slow but steady climb, above and away from the creek, but always within earshot.
After 3 miles you've already gained most of your elevation for this hike. The creek again makes contact with the trail, and there are supposedly camp sites here, but they were still under snow as of this date. Intermittent snow covers the trail in places from here on, becoming continuous at about 4 miles until you reach Fisher Creek at 5 1/2 miles. Deception Creek was awesome on the second half of the trail, narrowing into ravines, tumbling over pools and basins, with so many waterfalls I lost count. At Fisher Creek it is possible to cross on downed logs and continue to Deception Lakes & Pass, but that would require an overnight trip, so this is a good turn around for a day hike, round trip of about 11 miles.
A big shout out to our fellow WTA members who built a number of bridges, large and small, along this trail. We stayed safe and dry. Thanks volunteers!
When you're done, don't forget to stop at the nearby Deception Falls viewing area, just west of the trail on the north side of HWY 2. It's a short trail, just a few hundred feet, and the falls are quite impressive there.

Goat Lake

Happy day! Barlow Pass is now open!
The Goat Lake trail is in great shape, snow free and free of blowdowns the whole way. Since there is a lower and upper trail here, we did this hike as a loop, starting with the lower trail, which follows Elliot Creek through a forest that ranges from slide alder to tree farm to old growth, turning into a towering stand of ancient sentinals as you enter the Henry M. Jackson Wilderness. Elliot Creek makes a nice waterfall at the lake's outlet and was running so full of snow melt that it looked more like Elliot River.
At Goat Lake we found low clouds obscuring views of Cadet Peak and the aptly named Foggy Peak, so we bushwahcked on a faint tred along the north side of the lake to a view of yet another waterfall. The temperature dropped into the low 50's as a light rain began to fall, cool enough that I actually fished my gloves out of my pack for a few minutes. Typical "June-uary" Cascades weather. We did finally get a short sun break and the clouds briefly parted revealing Cadet Peak rising from the lake's east end.
We returned via the upper trail, an old logging road through a mostly alder forest, with occasional views of Sheep Mountain and passing by numerous small waterfalls. This segment of the trail has lots of flowers like trillium, bleeding heart and red columbine, and a couple nice moss & fern gardens clinging to wet rock walls.
Total trail distance for our trip was 12 miles, 1400' elevation gain. If you want to camp here, come early or come during the week, Sunday it was full of campers.

North Fork Sauk & Red Mountain

These three short hikes make for a great day trip, a sort of Sauk Valley sampler, all accessed by the same route, FS road 49.
The first hike, North Fork Sauk Falls, is less than two miles after the turn off from the Mountain Loop. We had to approach from Darrington because Barlow Pass isn't open yet, turning on to FS 49 just before Bedal Creek campground. The trail is very short, maybe 1/8th mile with a drop of 100' to the falls, which are thundering and misting mightily with snowmelt on this warm sunny weekend. Watch out for the rickety stairs and loose hand rails near the bottom.
FS Road 49 ends 1/2 mile before the trailhead for the other two hikes due to a washout. There's just room enough to turn around and park abot 200' before the washout. Crossing the gully can be done on the uphill side, an easy leap in you're athletic or a short scramble if you're not.
The trailhead is an easy 1/2 mile later at Sloan Creek campground. After pausing to pay our respects to a grove of ancient cedars and sign the trail register, we walked about 200 feet and took the trail to the left for Red Mountain. In a steep (800') mile, you'll come to a former FS lookout site with great views of Sloan Peak and the Cadets. The trail keeps going uphill, but unless you're out to explore deeper into the backcountry, this is a good turn around.
We returned to the valley and headed up the North Fork Sauk trail. We followed the river for 2 1/2 miles through swaths of huge old trees surrounded by carpets of wildflowers, from huge skunk cabbage to dainty calypso orchids. There's an avalanche chute to cross, along side of a creek at 2 miles, so watch out for hollow spots beneath otherwise hard packed snow. The FS web page said there would be deep snow after 1 1/2 miles, but we only saw small patches in the shade, so it's probably clear to Red creek at 4 miles, at which point it will be August before you can ford there and continue up the valley.
We did all three hikes in six hours, but that includes lunch, photo ops and 45 minutes just gazing from the lookout. This would be a great introduction to the Cascades for out of town friends or young explorers.
This is also a great place to hike if you're tired of the crowds at more popular hikes like Lake 22 or Mount Index. On this warm, sunny Sunday, Memorial Day weekend no less, we found only 4 other cars when we arrived at noon and only passed one couple on Red Mountain and one family on the North Fork Sauk River trail. If you seek beauty and solitude, these hikes in the Glacier Peak Wilderness offer the best "bang for the buck" sweat to scenary ratio in the Darrington Ranger District.

Thunder Creek

The Thunder Creek trail is in the North Cascades National Park, beginning at the Colonial Creek Campground and going as far as Lake Chelan in central Washington, via Park Creek Pass & Cascade Pass. We followed the first 6 1/2 miles along Thunder Creek to McAllister camp, an easy, kid friendly stretch that is 13 miles round trip, 700' elevation gain through huge old cedars and firs.
The trail is in good shape. We did encounter numerous blowdowns from last winter, maybe 30 trees that we had to go over/under/around, but none were major obstacles. Considering it was a Sunday in early May with temperatures in the low 70's, I would have thought that this fairly low elevation (1200'-1900') trail would have been packed, but we only saw one other hiker all day. I don't know if solitude can be found here once school lets out for the summer, but right now it's very peaceful. If you're afraid you'll be lonely, don't worry, you'll have plenty of mosquitoes to keep you company.
The trail starts along Diablo Lake for the first mile, then a bridge crossing takrs you to the north side of Thunder Creek, where the trail climbs above but within earshot of the creek for the next 5 miles. You'll cross Neve Creek and a dozen other unnamed tributaries, some on bridges but most by scrambling over logs or hopping stones. The forest is a mix of age classes, from towering old growth to areas cleared by fire and avalanche. The patches of new growth also afford teaser views of local peaks, including Colonial Peak for which the creek and campground are named (pictured above).
McAllister camp is a good spot for lunch and turnaround for day hikers. Backpackers may want to forge on to Tricouni Camp 2 miles away to avoid the tourists and to peer into the Great Dismal Swamp. The trail then takes of up hill for Park creek Pass, the Pacific Crest Trail and Lake Chelan.
I love Thunder Creek for its color, ranging from torquoise ble to emerald green; for its lovely spring wildflowers; and its tasty huckleberries and blueberries which line the trail in August and September.