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This past past week, I returned to the Pasayten Wilderness with Lynn and our two dogs Boomer (1) and Jilly (3).   We intended to walk the loop of ~60 miles over 4 – 5 days but had to cut our trip a little short due to high temps affecting the dogs.   The hike is described in Backpacking Washington and you’ll need Green Trails maps Coleman Peak #20 and Horseshoe Basin #21.  As with our 2008 hike, I elected to loop counter clockwise (effectively following the trail in reverse).   This gives epic views across to Cathedral Peak that build from day 2.  Makes getting there that much nicer.

Sunday

We left Redmond at 6AM for the four hour drive into Winthrop.  The sun was out and it was lovely run up I-5 then over the North Cascades Highway (SR-20) and down into the Methow Valley.   After a quick stop in Winthrop for a cinnamon roll we drove out to the 30 mile trailhead.   It’s aptly named as it’s a good 30 miles north out of Winthrop.  This region is also the location of the Thirty Mile fire where four people died.  There is a memorial to the fallen alongside the road as you head up to the trail.   We didn’t stop this time but I’d been there in 2008 when I last walked the loop – well worth a visit if you head out this way.

We arrived at the trailhead at 12:30pm and by this point it was already up to 90F.   Lynn was concerned about the heat with our two dogs – Boomer (1yr) and Jilly (3yrs).   Jilly had hiked with us last year when we did the Western Pasayten loop but for Boomer this would be her first true trip out into the Wilderness area.   The trailhead was deserted when we left so after swimming the dogs in the Chewuck River (this would become a theme for out trip) we set off through the dusty trail which runs alongside the river as it snakes it’s way up into the high hills.

Within about 30 minutes the heat really hit us and we were worried how the dogs would cope.   Luckily Lynn had packed a large pack-towel and we were able to cut this in half making a nice (wet) insulation blanket for Boomer and Jilly.   We would wet the blanket in the cold running streams and this would help keep them cool through the high heat.

The first section of trail took us along the river and up through the old burn area.   It’s very dusty but remarkably full of plant life.   In the three years since I was last there, it felt like a different trail.  The colors of fireweed brought a sense of cheer to what was otherwise a hot and dusty trail.

After walking about three miles we made it to Chewuck Falls – by this time the dogs were quite hot and panting a little so we headed down to the river and took a nice 30 minute break allowing them time to swim and cool off.  As you can see from the picture here, Boomer was very enthusiastic despite the frigid temperatures of the water!

From the falls we continued walking until we reached the start of the Basin Creek trail (342) some 6.1 miles from the trailhead.   We arrived there around 4pm – our goal was to head up about 1.7 miles to a great camp spot by the side of Basin Creek.  This would enable us to get an early start for the tough day of exposed climbing ahead.

The Basin Creek trail started climbing steeply across switchbacks.  The sun was very hot (my chest thermometer was reading 95F) – I was really starting to suffer from the heat and we had to take a break behind a large rock for me to cool off.   Fortunately I’d just filled by water carrier with cool water from the creek below and this served as a fantastic head cooler!

After cooling off we continued on for what turned into a tough slog up the hill before reaching our planned camping spot by the side of Basin Creek.   I was amazed how much the landscape had recovered in three years – when I was here last the whole landscape was barren with charcoal.  There were now lush grasses and small bushes in abundance!

We were all exhausted but it felt great to have made it to our nice little campsite.  The dogs looked tired but had done well.   After eating our fresh dinner we settled in for our first night.

Total distance ~7.8 miles

Monday

We woke up around 6am and were moving on the trail by 7am – the sun was already up and we wanted to get up and over Windy Peak before we hit the full on sunshine of yesterday.   Temps in camp were a nice 55F making it perfect walking weather as we climbed up to Windy Peak (trail 360) and then traversed across Topaz Mountain to Sunny Pass (trail 342).   It was warm again in the high 80Fs but we were all faring much better with the landscape being a good combination of flat sections then short climbs.    The climb to Windy Peak was nice in the early morning sun.   As we headed up and over to Sunny Pass the full on sun returned just in time for us to find a lovely creek to cool off our heads and let the dogs swim.   By this point we’d started to get more concerned about Boomer who was looking somewhat dehydrated and not eating as much as Jilly (the vacuum!).   Another good stop gave us a chance to get more water into her and ensure she was fueled with some good calories for the longer climb ahead.

We stopped at Sunny Pass under the shade of a large tree for lunch.   It was lovely in the upper meadows with no other people in sight.   It would have made a great camping spot with epic views across the valleys.   After lunch we continued walking through Horseshoe Pass on to our next stop at Louden Lake.   This was our planned water stop and also an option for overnight camping if we felt the dogs were too hot to continue on.   The lake was very low and quite muddy though Boomer insisted on checking the whole area out.   It was quick comical to see her barking at a large rock for a few minutes.  The high valleys were lush with grass and very few bugs with critters such as marmots and chipmonks in abundance so had to have the dogs on leash for the first time in two days.

Temps in the high valleys were better so we pushed on past the lake towards Haig Mountain for our planned overnight stop.   This was a return to a campsite I’d stayed at with Brett, Tim and Bill on our 2008 trip.   Getting to the camp was tiring but worth it with the nice logs and campfire.   Unfortunately there was a complete burn ban in the Wilderness so our lovely campfire pit had to make do with a camp stove.

Total distance ~11.4 miles (total of 19.2 miles)

Tuesday

Overnight we’d re-evaluated our plan of looping on to Cathedral Pass.   The heat had been causing us lots of problems with the dogs and was also making it harder going for both of us.   In addition the “high hunt” was scheduled to start on Thursday so we wanted to ensure we were well out of the high mountains by the end of Wednesday before the shooting started on Thursday morning.   Fortunately planning ahead always pays off and we had an alternate option to loop back to the car.   We opted to continued on the Boundary Trail (533) until we reached the old Tungsten Mine and would then head down the valley on the Tungsten Creek Trail (534).  This option would cut off a solid 12 miles saving us an additional day.   We also felt the trail would be more sheltered from the sun as it meandered through thick forest.

We hit the trial by 8am – overnight had been much warmer than we’d anticipated and it was already in the mid-60’s despite being in the shade.   The trial from Haig Mountain was a joy to walk as it hugged the mountain side passing Teapot Dome before heading up to the flats at Scheelite Pass.  Despite the initial reading of the map which looked like things headed downhill the trail still had a fair bit of climbing to reach our destination at Tungsten Mine.   We stopped for lunch beside a small stream and then headed out looking for the intersection of Tungsten Creek trail (534).    We’d initially headed across from the mine along the trail to find a trail side marked “not maintained, unsuitable for horses”.   This didn’t look like our trail and given our last experience going down an unmaintained trail was looped back to the mine and examined the map more carefully.   This time we found the trailhead (hard to miss honestly) directly below the old cabins. If you’d like to know more about the old Tungsten Mine, I researched it back in 2008.  The full report is here.

The Tungsten Creek trail headed sharply downhill beneath the old spoil heap and then started to turn taking a nice shallow descent out along the valley floor.   It was cooler here with nice shade from the trees and lots of water as we looped back across the many streams we’d crossed on the Boundary Trail.   The walk down the trail was nice – although it missed the epic views of the Boundary Trail there was lots of wildlife to see and lovely views through the trees into small mountain meadows.    After descending to reach Cinch Creek (about 4 miles in) we stopped for a  good rest.  Boomer was literally pooped and needed to rehydrate, eat and get a good long rest.   We found a lovely camping spot between the forks of Cinch Creek and decided to stop here overnight.

After feeding Boomer and letting her sleep for a while she seemed much better so we changed plans again and headed down to the base of the trail to meet the Remmel Creek Trial (510).   After crossing the Chewuch River we found a huge camping area that looked to be very popular with horses (judging by the amount of horse poop!).   We stopped here for the night and setup camp in a lovely little site just by the side of the river.

Total distance ~15.9 miles (total 35.1 miles)

Wednesday

We woke around 5:30am after a nice restful night beside the river.   The sounds of running water made for a lovely backdrop to our early morning tasks of cleaning camp and feeding the woofers.   The dogs looked well recovered from their long day yesterday and were bouncing around the camp chasing each other with lots of energy.    We broke camp and then headed out for the short (8 mile) hike back to thirty mile trailhead.   The walking today was the easiest of all the days with a nice long walk down the mountain back 8.1 miles to the car.   The walk back was uneventful and a little cooler than other days.    We ran into our first people on the trail just 2 miles from the car; it was a pack train of hunters heading into the high hills for the high hunt which starts on Thursday.   We made it back to the car by noon and then bathed and swam to dogs in the Chewuch River before heading into Winthrop for a well earned pint of ale in the Old Schoolhouse Brewery.

Total distance ~8.1 miles (total 43.2 miles)

Summary

Overall this was a very hot and dusty trip.   It was fortunate that Lynn had a large pack towel that we could use to cool the dogs.   Other than the heat the trip was good – the wilderness has really started to recover from the thirty mile fire and it’s far prettier in the lower valleys than my last visit.  Both dogs did well camping in the Lunar Duo – there was lots of space for the four of us including our packs and gear.

It was a little disappointing not being able to loop through Cathedral Lake but we’ll just have to save that for another trip

Full pictures are available here.

For more details on the hike look it up in Backpacking Washington.

The prior night was pretty cold due to a light breeze which blew through the tent.  This was great though as it meant we had zero condensation in the tent making our morning pack up easy and the tent pounds lighter (dry tent == good tent :)).   We hit the trail around 9am in high spirits – the hike out was meant to be beautiful and with blue skies we would have a wonderful last day on the trails.

The trial did not disappoint – though we have 2100’ of climbing back to the car the views were simply amazing.   This was by far the best day on the trails and we were all (including Jilly) in high spirits.

After climbing for about an hour we took a short spur trail to an overlook at the cutely named Hoot Owl Camp which has a epic view across the valley to Rampart Ridge.   From there we continued to Lucky Pass and then finally headed through Eightmile Pass before descending back to the car at the trailhead.  This completed our estimated 50 mile loop.

Overall the trip was ok with some really high points (hiking from East Pastayten out) and some super lows (Bunker Hill day).   Compared to my prior trip to the Eastern Pasayten this was a disappointing trip as there were very few views along the route.   I’m sure my perception would change if we’d had good weather on Bunker Hill.  Despite all this, I really did enjoy the trip.   This was our first serious backpacking trip with Jilly and she did super well.   She settled into a routine on day 2 and learned to hike behind me in a nice heel for hour after hour (Lynn gets the credit for the training :)).    It’s super encouraging as she’s barely 2 years old and will be better behaved as she matures.

All in all, it was great to get out and away from the city.

After our dismal “lost day” yesterday we awoke hoping for a better trail.   The weather looked much better today with clear blue skies already showing by 7:30am.    Once the mist burned off the valley floor, it was a lovely day with the sun shining through the burnt trees.    The hiking here was actually quite good.  The burn trees were nice and open with lots of colorful fireweed shining brightly along the trail.   No real wildlife to speak of but lovely open woodland views.   

We soon hiked the 4 miles to Big Hidden Lake, the first of the three hidden lakes.   We encoutered several groups of people our our hike today – what looked like a hunter/guide snoring in the sunshine outside the guard shack followed by a group of men fly fishing in float tubes on middle hidden lake.    Compared to the first three days, this was a huge number of people in such a short time.

After leaving Big Hidden Lake, we saw our first bear sighting – Jilly was quite excited and would have run off after him had she been off leash.   This bear was pretty large too – at least 100lbs or more.    We then spent the next 30 minutes making lots of noise just in case he had friends along the trail.

Soon after First Hidden Lake we ran into a huge pack train of horses – three people and some 10 horses all heading in the direction of Hidden Lakes.    We assumed this was another High Hunt camp going in for the week.

From the Hidden Lakes we followed the trail passing Cougar Lake (no Cougars!) to reach our planned camping spot at Diamond Creek at 4pm.    This was a lovely little spot with a great deal of flat camping and ample water supply.   Here we met Dori, a lovely USFS Ranger who was just heading out for a 9 day wilderness patrol.   She was hoping to reach Hidden Lakes for the night be decided to join us in camping at Diamond Creek given the fading light.   We chatted with Dori for several hours learning about the USFS Rangers, patrol cabins and how the USFS regulates the Pasayten.  

The camp here was great and it was wonderful to have several hours to putter around getting things setup.    This was the first night where we’d arrived in camp and not been rushing for daylight to get things sorted.   The weather update from Dori was good for tomorrow – sunshine and clear skies for our final 9 mile hike out to Billy Goat Corral.

The predicted weather came through with continuous showers falling all night.  By the time time we hit the trail at 8:45am, the rain was still falling but had receded to constant drizzle.   Full rain gear came out with leggings, and our favored Paramor jackets.

From our camp at Peeve Pass was continued on climbing 1400’ up to Bunker Hill (7100’).   The weather today was really unfortunate as the views along Quartz Mountain would have been great.    After descending the mountain we bumped into our first hikers of the day, a young man and his dog all kitted out.  They were moving along at a fairly fast clip and soon passed us.   I found the hiking up Bunker Hill to be hard going – it was super steep with little switchbacks.   It was also very hot and humid.   On reaching the glorious summit, the views would have been amazing(!) if not for the torrid weather :-(.   

We crested the summit and continued down following a well worn stock trail.   The trail soon started descending down switchbacks through an old burn area which lots of blow down.    I became worried we’d missed the trail and was getting concerned we would become lost.   We backtracked up the hill to try and get a signal on my GPS (iPhone with Memory Map).    After fudging around with the settings (Note: flight mode needed to be off!) we got a signal and found that we’d taken a wrong turn and were following the old trail #456 which we’d been warned against.  This takes you off Bunker Hill in a SSE direction and we needed to follow the trail in a NNW direction (genius Ellis was off by 180°).

We soon backtracked and, after double and triple checking compass, GPS, map and trail guide, we found the missing trail about a mile back up the hill.    The trail was actually marked via. a series of cairns (rock piles) and had a signpost obscured in the trees.   I’ve marked our lost route in blue in the map fragment below.   This last bit really bothered me and we ended up being super careful and even second guessing our route and we descended down the correct trail.    The trail dropped into a small lush valley before once again descending into an old burn area.   I was following the GPS route pretty carefully as the trail was again hard to follow.   It veered way off at one point so much so that I decided it must be wrong (I’m sure you’re getting the picture now).   After yomping around again lost for about an hour we finally found the trail again and then picked up speed.  

At this this point we’d lost a good three hours and I was very worried we would be stuck on the high hillside with no flat camping spots for the night.    Luckily we were able move fast with most of the trail being down hill.    We soon left the switchbacks and sighted the Pasayten River.   Our target camp at the East Fork was now only 1.5 miles away.    

We rolled into camp at 7:15pm with only 30 minutes of daylight left to setup and cook.  Little Jilly was dog tired and soon curled up into a little ball by the side of the river.  We followed along and were all soon out in a deep sleep hoping for a better trails the following day.

We woke up around 6am absolutely freezing!   Looking at the thermometer on my pack watch it was 32F inside the tent and that’s with two adults and a heat generating Jilly-dog.   After deciding it was pointless hoping that Lynn would bring me coffee in bed I got things going.   Jilly did well on her first night in the tent and demonstrated she was every bit Lynn’s equal in fighting for space on the sleeping pad (despite having her own nice doggie bed).   After our morning ritual we hit the trail around 8:40am with a goal of making it to Peeve Pass approximately 12 miles away.

The hiking today was pretty nice with wide open trails, meadows and lots small passes as the trail meandered up and over Three Fools Pass (would love to know where the name came from).    We passed a pack train coming out with one guy and four horses.   I’m always amazed to see the horses and mules loaded up with gear moving along with saws, boxes and lord knows what else strapped on.   Simply incredible.    After cresting Three Fools Pass we encountered our first “hunt camp” which was being used for a staging area for the upcoming High Hunt season which runs from September 15th for 10 days.  This is a time when you do not want to be out in the Pasayten as it’s swamped with hunters!

We continued climbing and ran into two women we’d just spent two lovely days at Corral Lake.  They’d been at higher elevation the previous night and had woken to 2 inches of snow.    The climb up Larch Pass was long and pretty strenuous though the trail was nicely maintained but quite steep in sections.   Upon reaching the summit of Larch Pass the views were lovely and the most open we’d seen so far on the trip.    From here it was only another mile to our planned camp at Corral Lake.   However the weather looked like it was changing with very dark clouds coming in.    We decided to push on and make camp at Peeve Pass about 4 miles further.    The map showed the trail to be almost level but this turned out to be a sign of things to come with an onward descent followed by another climb back to gain the elevation we’d lost.

We arrived into Peeve Pass around 6pm to find a lovely meadow with a great stream and water supply.    We pitched made camp under a large fir tree hoping to shield the worst of the coming rain.  Our planned route tomorrow would continue clockwise around Sheep Mountain but given the poor weather we decided to cut a day off the hike in the hope we could avoid a repeat of our soggy Scotland TGO Challenge Hike.

We left Redmond around 10am and reached Winthrop at 2pm. The drive over the pass (20)  was quite lovely with blue skies and sun shining out across the road. On reaching Winthrop, we headed into the excellent Winthrop Mountain Sports to pick up a few extra bits of kit. From there we headed out of town towards Perrygrin State Park and over NF51 to reach the trailhead at Billy Goat Corral some 17 miles later. The trailhead was pretty nice as trailheads go with clear signage, permit station and a nice double "FS standard toilet" building.

Getting all the gear loaded and Jilly ready to go (it was her first back country hike so she was super excited) took a while. We packed up the remainder of our lunch (hummus and cucumbers) and headed out on to the trail at 4pm. After about 1/4 mile the trail forked and we turned right heading up directly to Billy Goat Pass. The climb to the pass was 2.6 miles and was nice and steep climbing 1800′ to the pass.

We hiked over the pass quickly with no views due to dense trees. We soon passed over a nice new bridge at Drake Creek which had just been completed by a group of WTA volunteers. Apparently we were the first hikers over the bridge so we suggested they call if "Jilly Dog Bridge". We’ll have to see if the name sticks. The WTA group of 9 people were in wonderful spirits and had a roaring campfire going at their extremely well equipped wilderness camp. It was great to see the group of mixed ages (low 20’s to 60’s) having such a great time.

We continued on down the trail for about another mile before finding a nice camping spot 30′ feet from a small stream. By this time the light was beginning to fade and we setup camp, I hung our bear rope and we started to make Jilly’s dinner. Rather than take regular dried dog food, Lynn had sourced some dehydrated raw food which came highly recommended. If Jilly’s initial response was anything to go by this food was going to be a hit. We brewed up some water and then left Jilly’s food the recommended 30 minutes to rehydrate and then settled in for our own dinner of hummus and cucumbers – yum!

As the light faded, the temperatures dropped fast. The forecast was for snow at 6200′ so we’d tried to lose as much elevation as we could eventually settling in at 5900′ and hoping we’d miss the predicted poor weather.    We rolled into bed around 8:30pm already feeling chilled.

During my recent four day backpacking trip in the Pasayten Wilderness with Brett, Tim and Bill we visited an old Tungsten mine on Wolframite Mountain.   The location is extremely remote (30 miles from Winthrop) so it was amazing to see the array of machinery present at the mine.   While walking up the trail to the mine, we found lots of iron pipe which appears to have been used to supply the mine workers and machinery with water.    I was astounded at the scale of the workings – everything on site (with the exception of wood) was hauled in via. pack trains taking many days to reach the location.

On returning to Redmond, I was curious to learn more about the mine.  

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