Pasayten Wilderness—July 26-31
Posted: August 2nd, 2011, 3:54 pm
We set aside this time months ago to do the loop around Three Sisters, but that’s clearly not happening this year. The Pasayten was looking like our best alternative, but the Rangers in Winthrop were warning about large amounts of snow. Either they were exaggerating, or it mostly melted just before our trip, because, to my mind, this was the perfect time for this route.
We started from Billy Goat Trailhead, about 27 miles from Winthrop, WA, 4800 feet. That’s a seven hour drive from Portland, so we didn’t get started until after 4 pm. The direct route is over Billy Goat Pass (6600 feet) which we were told was impassable, so we took the left fork and hiked four easy miles to a nice campsite at Drake Creek. The next day we hiked up Drake Creek to a junction with the trail over Billy Goat—#502. The detour cost us an extra 2 miles and saved us about a thousand feet of gain and loss. We made 8 or 9 miles on day two and found a nice camp next to a meadow on Larch Creek. There is no longer a bridge over Diamond Creek, so we pulled on the Crocs and forded the calf-deep icy creek.
Day three took us over 7200 foot Larch Pass, to where the alpine scenery gets spectacular. We were told the trail was snow-covered for 2.5 miles either side of the pass. There were a couple of patches—no more. The high Pasayten has miles of green ridges that provide easy roaming. We caught it at my favorite time in the mountains. The snow was just leaving and every living thing was rushing to create more life in the short time before snow. The meadows are filled with early flowers. I saw more glacier lilies and pasque flowers in a few days than I’ve seen in the last 35 years. The ground squirrels are everywhere. The deer come around every morning and evening and are starting to look sleek and healthy. We had thought to head for a camp near Peeve Pass to put us in position to visit Sheep Lake, which I remember fondly from a Boundary Trail hike years ago. But the meadows of McCall Gulch were too inviting to pass up. We found a lovely campsite a few hundred feet off the 502 on Trail 548, 7100 feet. The junction is marked by cairns. Day four was a planned layover day. With daypacks, we made the 11-mile circumambulation of Sand Ridge. Trail 502 continues up the east side to Peeve Pass. There is an unmaintained trail along the west side. It is shown somewhat accurately on the Green Trails map. The loop took us through a variety of wet basins (lilies, pasque flowers, marsh marigolds, globeflowers) and dry ridges (lupine, paintbrush, arnica). A great hike followed by a chilly dip in the creek.
We spent our final night in Three Fools Pass, where the stillness of the night was broken only by browsing deer and a mournful owl. There were great displays of flowers on the hike out over (not snowy) Billy Goat Pass. Some general notes. The bugs were only a minor annoyance. They were bad at the trailhead, and we didn’t see them again until the third day. The warm days did bring them out more after that. The trails here are graded for horses, so it’s generally pretty easy hiking. There are a usually a lot of horses and mules on trails in the Pasayten. Because we were there just as the snow was clearing, we only saw a few teams—apparently outfitters going up to provision their camps. It’s clear that there has been a lot of work done on trail 502 in the last couple of years, and it’s generally in good shape. Most of the spruce trees are dead or dying. Spruce Budworm? You can read about this hike as part of a loop in Doug Lorain’s Backpacking Washington, second edition; and also here http://www.wta.org/magazine/WA_TRAILS_0 ... SAYTEN.pdf
We started from Billy Goat Trailhead, about 27 miles from Winthrop, WA, 4800 feet. That’s a seven hour drive from Portland, so we didn’t get started until after 4 pm. The direct route is over Billy Goat Pass (6600 feet) which we were told was impassable, so we took the left fork and hiked four easy miles to a nice campsite at Drake Creek. The next day we hiked up Drake Creek to a junction with the trail over Billy Goat—#502. The detour cost us an extra 2 miles and saved us about a thousand feet of gain and loss. We made 8 or 9 miles on day two and found a nice camp next to a meadow on Larch Creek. There is no longer a bridge over Diamond Creek, so we pulled on the Crocs and forded the calf-deep icy creek.
Day three took us over 7200 foot Larch Pass, to where the alpine scenery gets spectacular. We were told the trail was snow-covered for 2.5 miles either side of the pass. There were a couple of patches—no more. The high Pasayten has miles of green ridges that provide easy roaming. We caught it at my favorite time in the mountains. The snow was just leaving and every living thing was rushing to create more life in the short time before snow. The meadows are filled with early flowers. I saw more glacier lilies and pasque flowers in a few days than I’ve seen in the last 35 years. The ground squirrels are everywhere. The deer come around every morning and evening and are starting to look sleek and healthy. We had thought to head for a camp near Peeve Pass to put us in position to visit Sheep Lake, which I remember fondly from a Boundary Trail hike years ago. But the meadows of McCall Gulch were too inviting to pass up. We found a lovely campsite a few hundred feet off the 502 on Trail 548, 7100 feet. The junction is marked by cairns. Day four was a planned layover day. With daypacks, we made the 11-mile circumambulation of Sand Ridge. Trail 502 continues up the east side to Peeve Pass. There is an unmaintained trail along the west side. It is shown somewhat accurately on the Green Trails map. The loop took us through a variety of wet basins (lilies, pasque flowers, marsh marigolds, globeflowers) and dry ridges (lupine, paintbrush, arnica). A great hike followed by a chilly dip in the creek.
We spent our final night in Three Fools Pass, where the stillness of the night was broken only by browsing deer and a mournful owl. There were great displays of flowers on the hike out over (not snowy) Billy Goat Pass. Some general notes. The bugs were only a minor annoyance. They were bad at the trailhead, and we didn’t see them again until the third day. The warm days did bring them out more after that. The trails here are graded for horses, so it’s generally pretty easy hiking. There are a usually a lot of horses and mules on trails in the Pasayten. Because we were there just as the snow was clearing, we only saw a few teams—apparently outfitters going up to provision their camps. It’s clear that there has been a lot of work done on trail 502 in the last couple of years, and it’s generally in good shape. Most of the spruce trees are dead or dying. Spruce Budworm? You can read about this hike as part of a loop in Doug Lorain’s Backpacking Washington, second edition; and also here http://www.wta.org/magazine/WA_TRAILS_0 ... SAYTEN.pdf