Last week, we took Brooke on her first backpacking trip in Washington State since she was 9 years old.
Lets just say lots has changed. Brooke is now carrying a full pack, hiking at the same speed as Jim, and taking amazing photos. Some things have stayed the same. Brooke couldn’t wait to jump in an alpine lake no matter how cold it was and she still loves climbing around on the rock. It was very special to watch Jim share his love of Washington mountains with his daughter.
After scrambling to find a trip which would avoid the fires and most of the smoke, Jim came up with the Bull’s Tooth and Chain Lakes traverse. It would be 3-1/2 days and we should be able to stay out of the fires and minimize our smoke exposure.
The traverse started on the Pacific Crest Trail at the Stevens Pass Ski Resort parking lot. We spent the first hour hiking up through the ski resort itself.
When I reached the ridge crest, I found a chair lift and Jim and Brooke enjoying the view.
We continued hiking south on the Pacific Crest Trail. I was happy to see Josephine Lake which would be our lunch stop.
Jim and Brooke were not going to let a sunny day at an alpine lake go without a swim. I put one toe in and decided the water was way to cold for me. Jim and Brooke both love an alpine lake. As a child, Brooke would stay in the water until she was blue. Actually, she would stay in the water well past turning blue.
After spending an hour and a half relaxing at Josephine Lake, we packed up and headed to Chain Lakes. The afternoon was muggy and the hill climb was long. Eventually, we popped out of the trees and there was lower Chain Lake.
I hiked on a little further and found Jim and Brooke at the main Chain Lake with a wonderful campsite right on the lake.
That night we enjoyed mountain margaritas and a sky full of stars. It was hard to imagine the rest of the state was full of fires and smoke.
We woke to a still lake…
And morning sun rays,
Our goal for today was to continue on our traverse and climb The Bull’s Tooth along the way. Though Brooke has become an avid, world backpacker, she has not be climbing since she left for Australia.
From the saddle between The Bull’s Tooth and The Bull’s Head, we could see Doelle Lakes. It was obvious that some smoke was moving in. We had expected this so no one was worried.
Before going to Deolle Lake, we wanted to climb The Bull’s Tooth so we dropped our big packs, put on harnesses, and headed up the heather slope on the shoulder of The Bull’s Tooth.
We ended up doing a little scrambling on our way to the base of the rock.
As we traversed around the large rock horn, we enjoyed views back at Chain Lakes.
Once at the base of the rock, we roped up. Brooke was very excited to be heading up a mountain crag once again.
It only took 30 minutes for all of us to reach the final, very short pitch. I gladly let Jim lead this one.
Right before the summit block, we had to suffer through a very weird slither over exposed rock. Some how Brooke avoided this move. Neither Jim nor I could figure out how.
Once at the base of the summit block, we took turns climbing up to the small, exposed summit. It amazing how comfortable a rope makes you feel.
It was fun to be able to visit while each other climbed. Normally when you are on a rope, you are 40 feet apart.
We were having so much fun climbing, we hadn’t really noticed how much smoke had moved in. It still wasn’t really bad even though our far views were becoming very hazy. We could still see fairly well and there was no bad smell.
We ended up doing three rappels to get back down to where we could safely head back to our packs. After a short break, we started hiking down to Doelle Lakes. We still had a long ways to go before Lake Margaret and camp for the night. The smoke was continuing to get thicker.
At Deolle Lake, we took another break and filled up on water. Even though the air was getting quite smoke, the views were still amazing.
For the next hour, we had to stick together and follow Brooke’s GPS. The trail kept vanishing in the tall grasses. The fall colors are really starting to come in.
As we hiked along the ridge toward Frosty Pass, we began talking about the smoke. It was getting bad. Lake Margaret, our camp for the night, was in a basin. Smoke settles in basins. Our hike for tomorrow would be in a river valley. Smoke settles in low places.
We discussed bailing out. At Frosty Pass, we could turn left instead of right and head out to the Whitepine Trailhead. We were 10 miles from the trailhead and then we would need to hike 6 miles of dirt road to get back to highway 2. I was sure we could catch a ride back up to Stevens Pass.
When we passed a water source on the ridge, we all agree to camp for the night and bail out in the morning. No one knew how bad the smoke was going to get but the report we received from Jim Aga on the InReach was not good.
As we setup camp on a heather bench, I sent a message to Jim and Sarah seeing if they might want to come pick us up at the Whitepine trailhead. We were all very excited when we received the message that they were coming. None of us wanted to walk the 6 miles down the dirt road.
During the night, the smoke got still worse. Brooke and I both slept with face coverings. In the morning, we could barely see the nearby ridge line. But then the sun came over the ridge. It was quite spectacular. This picture does not do it justice.
Even though we were cutting our trip short, we had all had a wonderful time and were enjoying our last morning in camp.
We started off this morning completing our traverse to Frosty Pass. Along the way, we stumbled into a marmot colony. It started by spotting just one. Since Brooke had never seen a marmot, we stop so she could take some pictures. Soon there were two marmots. Then we spotted a couple more. Jim turned around and saw another three uphill from us.
We stood there for 15 minutes enjoying watching them go about their day. We counted 12 but who knows how many more were still in their dens. All looked very healthy. Some looked to be this years offspring.
Can you find 3 marmots in this photo?
When we reached the Grace Lakes trail junction, I insisted on Jim and Brooke going up so Brooke could see this beautiful lake. This was probably her one chance to do so. I continued down the trail, heading toward Jim and Sarah, picking blueberries as I hiked. Even with the smoke, we had a fabulous trip.
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