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| Morning at Pass Creek |
Day 29 was a long and epic day of hiking. We had a quiet enough morning at Pass Creek, leaving pretty early. Soon, we were walking ridges north. We saw a few people... it was really strange because they were on day hikes and we wondered how they made it all the way out into these mountains. There must have been a road somewhere that we were unaware of.
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| Ridge Walking |
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| Leading the way |
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| Lake Sally-Anne |
We took a short break at Lake Sally-Anne, were it was a little windy and exposed but otherwise very pretty. We had food and laid about in whatever shade we could find.
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| Heading farther up |
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| Glacier Peak |
Next, we hiked around Kodak peak, where we laughed about a boy hiking with to very talkative older women. He did not appear to be enjoying himself! We rested again at Indian Pass, where there was a nice stump to prepare food on.
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| Looking south from Kodak Peak |
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| Looking back to the west on Kodak Peak |
The real views began as we approached White Pass. We were too close to see Glacier Peak to our north, but the sloping mountainsides covered in huckleberries and grass were an amazing sight! We could see for miles and miles down pristine wilderness valleys. White pass would be a dream for spotting wildlife!
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| Glacier Peak Wilderness |
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| The valleys are bigger and deeper in the north |
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| Short break by a pond before White Pass |
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| Trail along White Pass |
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| Gonna hike around/over that ridge |
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| View west from White Pass. |
We thought we had seen some amazing sights, but there was much more in store for us as we climbed to Red Pass! During this climb, we were passed by team Minnesota, who took our picture at the top of the pass. In the late afternoon sun, the world was cool and full of color.
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| Such lush landscape! |
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| Climbing |
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| My bad-ass wife! |
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| Steep hillside and team Minnesota |
This was also our first brush with "Gus the Marmot". We had seen a few marmots in Goat Rocks and the Cascade Lakes Wilderness, but they behaved nothing like the marmots up here. These north cascade marmots were lazy and grumpy! They would lie right next to the trail as long as possible until you felt like you should stop. They would give you this, "I can't believe you're making me do this!" look when they finally did move. We named our favorite marmot Gus. Whenever we saw another similar marmot, he would also be christened Gus, or given a boigraphical story about his or her relation to Gus. It was a fun game!
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| Gus the Marmot |
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| Red Mountain in the distance |
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| View south at Red Pass |
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| Panorama south and west |
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| A couple dirty hikers on top of the world! |
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| Red Mountain from Red Pass |
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| Looking back toward Kodak Peak |
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| One last picture south and west |
After taking quite some time to admire the view to the south and west, we continued over the pass to look north. what we found was an idyllic mountain valley complete with wildflowers and waterfalls!
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| Heading down into a glacial valley |
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| This is so big and grand! |
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| Laura heading down from Red Pass |
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| There is something freeing about an open space like this! |
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| And there's Glacier Peak! |
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| Glacier Peak |
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| Glacier Peak |
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| Looking back south toward the pass |
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| There is no way to describe how magical this was! |
We ended up staying in a spot that was less a campsite than a field. It was a little soggy but we managed. We felt so exhilarated after our amazing hike of about 17 miles! We sat and talked with each other and team Minnesota about the amazing views we had all seen! It was an amazing moment of camaraderie!
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