Glacier Peak Loop trip report

“After much trip planning, my friends Gary and Mark and I decided to tackle a loop trip in Glacier Peak Wilderness, going from Phelps Creek trailhead to Spider Meadow, over Spider Gap past Lyman Lakes to Cloudy and Suiattle Pass, over Middle Ridge to Buck Creek Pass and out to Trinity.

We arrived at the trailhead at noon on Monday and set out. We hit Spider Meadow at about 3 pm after encountering only two dayhikers and continued on up to Larch Knob. There was no one else camped there, so we chose the most scenic campsite overlooking Spider Meadow and enjoyed dinner and made whiskey slushies with snow from Spider Glacier.

The next day we headed up Spider Glacier. We enjoyed the incredible view from 7100' Spider Gap then picked our way down the snowfield on the Lyman Lake side. We took our boots off in Lyman Basin and relaxed, then descended the serpentine trail to Lower Lyman Lake. We needed water at this point but our filter operator balked at the amount of silt in the water at the lake, so we refilled and used iodine. We had a 15 minute rain shower, then the sun came out again as we headed up to Cloudy Pass. Here we saw more hikers camping near the last water before the pass.

We reached the pass at about 4 pm but decided to wait to see if a group of 11 teenage Boy Scouts and their lone adult leader were going to stay or go. After a long 45 minutes, they moved on so we set up camp. Here we got our first good glimpse of Glacier Peak. That night at about 9:30, we heard thunder approaching... it kept getting closer and closer and then all hell broke loose right above us. We must have had 6 or 7 lightning strikes and thunderclaps right above our tents! We were hunkered down on the ridgetop and probably should have moved. It was an awesome display though; we had a tough time sleeping after that.

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny with a few low clouds lingering in the valley bottoms as we headed to Suiattle Pass. Glacier Peak was covered in clouds so we opted to skip Miner's Ridge and Image Lake. We met two young ladies hiking who asked us which way it was to Holden. They said they'd hiked 17 miles the day before - but how the hell did they know that if they didn't know where they were? We climbed out of Miner's Creek and up Middle Ridge and took in the views there for about an hour. We then planned to camp at Small Creek but didn't realize that there was but ONE stinking campsite there and it was occupied. We'd dawdled too long on Middle Ridge, it seemed. We arrived at Buck Creek Pass at about 7 pm and set up camp, then ate and watched the sun set behind Glacier Peak. It was truly spectacular and we were SO glad we hadn't camped at that crappy site at Small Creek.

Thursday we slept in until 8 then set out on a dayhike up Liberty Cap. The flowers were beautiful and everywhere and the views over the Suiattle River Valley were really stunning. It seemed that every corner we turned, the views kept getting better and better. We then met a group of 8 NOLS students and instructors who were in the middle of an 18-day course. They'd started near the White River, come over Boulder Pass into the Napeequa Valley, then over High Pass and were heading to Miner's Creek for resupply before they climbed Glacier Peak. They told us they were carrying 40% of their body weight in their packs. Ye gawds!

We continued on to Triad Lake - which is just an indescribably beautiful little spot, ate lunch - then headed the 3 miles back to camp. Our plan was to then hike a few hours and look for a nice campsite on Buck Creek... but almost as soon as we got within earshot of the creek, the biting black hordes began to devour us. We stopped once, to water up and couldn't stand it any longer. We tore out of there and headed to Trinity. We drug our arses to the truck at 7:15 and took off our boots to view the damage.

We then drove to the other vehicle at Phelps Creek and then headed to Leavenworth for some well deserved burgers and beer. All in all, a great trip that will be hard to top for scenic splendor. Here's the trip log:

Day 1 to Spider Meadows was about 6 miles, gaining 1548'.
Day 2 to Cloudy Pass was about 7 miles, descending 2136' then gaining 3025'.
Day 3 to Buck Creek Pass was 11 miles, descending 4013' and gaining 3416'.
Day 4 dayhike was 6 miles R/T then 10 miles back to Trinity, gaining 394' then descending 3392'

And here's links to the pictures:

Album #1

Album #2

Album #3”

“Great report and the pics are to die for!I like the one did you pee here?That was cute!

I like the wild flowers & the snow shots the best!

8)”

“Excellent report and terrific pictures..I love shots taken from the passes and ridges. Beautiful country.”

“The pics are sweet!”

“Kleety returns! Nice report and shots.”

“Your squirrel has become masot at another website!

www.trucknutz.com”

“nice report”

“even better photos. Great composition and greater subject matter. Thanks for taking the time to share you journey and memories.”

“Thanks for the kind words; I couldn't believe how many photos I took but in retrospect I wish I would have taken a few more.

In my trip report I forgot to include what happened at base camp during our Thursday dayhike: Gary left his shirt he'd worn the previous day on a log to dry in the sun. When we returned in the afternoon, a marmot had chewed a humongous hole in his shirt. Whoa, them boyz will eat anything!

Also forgot to mention that the two chick hikers who had no map looked sort of ill at ease when I fetched the map from my pack. After they walked off, Mark and Gary pointed out that I had a huge rip in the butt of my shorts and my fly was also open. Kewl!”

“Kleent, they arrest people for that kind of behavior in Kansas.
Thanks for the report and pics. Lovely.”

“"Kewl," LMAO!! that's pretty freakin' funny about the open fly and whatnot.

nice pics!”

“Sweet pics and great TR Kleety. Did you guys camp above treeline when the thunderstorm was raging?

Thanks for sharing!”

“BB, yeah, we were on the ridge in a meadow when the thunderstorm was raging and my sleeping bag has the brown streak to prove it!”

“Kleetn:


You suck.

Good trip report, though!”

“Nice report. Sounds like an awesome trip. I'll check out the pics later when I have more time.”