Washington State Hikes

Gabi and Li-Tal Hikes in WA, August - October 2007

Mt Rainier:

• Climbing Mt Rainier summit:
  • http://www.mountrainierclimbing.blogspot.com/
  • http://www.mountainguides.com/rainier-programs.shtm
    • 2-Day Summit Climb - 875$. If we go in September, low season, we can make it 796$
• Skyline Trail hike:
  • our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gkliot/USAMountRainie

North Cascades national park:

• North Cascades national park maps:

  • http://www.nps.gov/noca/parknews/upload/Challenger%202007-16.pdf
  • http://www.nps.gov/noca/parknews/upload/Challenger%202007-8&9.pdf

• Cascade Pass / Sahale Arm Trail

  • From Cascade pass parking we went up to the Cascade pass and continued to the Basin Creek capmground. Next day we came back the same way.
  • Total distance: 14 miles (7 miles each direction)
  • Trail description
    • http://www.nps.gov/noca/planyourvisit/cascade-pass-trail.htm
    • Pictures and some description: http://www.pbase.com/ericnoel/cascade_pas
    • More description:  http://www.wta.org/~wta/cgi-bin/wtaweb.pl?7+reports+displayM+2007080604
  • Our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gkliot/USACascadePass

Gifford Pinchot National Forest - St Helens:

• Climbing Mt. St Helens Volcano:
  • General info about climbing St Helens is here: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/mount-st-helens/ and about purchasing climbing pass: http://mshinstitute.goldbar.onenw.org/experience/permit-system.html
  • Climbing pass costs 22$ per person, valid for one day. Need to by purchased from the web site couple of days in advance.In the second web site you can see that all places in August are taken. The next available weekend is October the 7th.
• Hiking in St Helens Park:
  • http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/index.shtml
  • Campgrounds: 
    • http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/recreation/campgrounds/documents/cgmap2006clickable.pdf
    • Mount Margaret Backcountry  http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/backcountry
      • Camping permit can be reserved via fax/mail reservation 3 week ahead or on the spot at Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center
  • Maps:
    • http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/04maps/images/MonumentTearmapFinalweb-2007.jpg
    • more maps: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/04maps
      • pick backcountry maps at the upper part of the screen
  • Boundary trail and South Coldwater trail:
    • We initially planned to walk the Lakes trail #211, starting from Coldwater lake, hike for 8-9 miles to Panhandle lake, camp there and the next day come back with a boundary trail #1 (doing a big circuit). However, in the Coldwater visitors center they told us that the trail up from Coldwater lake to the Snow lake has been destroyed and we better not take it.
    • So we took trail #1, camped at the Dome campground and the next day came back with #1, then #230 and then #230A trails.
    • Total distance: 16 miles (8 miles each direction)
    • Trails description:
      • Boundary Trail #1: http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/btrails/boundary_norway.html
      • Coldwater Trail #230: http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/ctrails/coldwater.html
      • South Coldwater Trail #230A: http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/strails/southcoldwater.html
      • Lakes Trail #211: http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/ltrails/lakes.html
      • More on lakes trail: http://www.trailsnw.com/hike_description.php?hike_num=145
    • Our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gkliot/USAStHelens
  • Other treks in the area
    • Ape Canyon Trail #234: http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/atrails/apecanyon.html
• NW Forest Pass
  • Need a North West Forest pass to hike and camp on most of these trails.
    • Can be bought in Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center, which is where we are going to start trail 211.

• Climbing Mt Pugh (Darrington Ranger District):

• Total distance: 10 miles (5 miles each direction). It took us 5 hours to reach the peak and 3.5 hours back.
  
• Trail description:
  
  • http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/mtrails/mtpugh.html
• http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150517/mount-pugh.html
• http://www.attrition.ws/index~Hike_Review~Mt._Pugh_Mt._Baker_National_Forest-Snoqualmie_Washington~page~hikeoverview~HikeInstanceID~141.cfm
• maps:
• http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=48.143165,-121.374279&spn=0.1,0.1&q=48.143165,-121.374279+(Mount_Pugh)
• http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=48.1431652&lon=-121.3742785&s=200&size=m&layer=DRG100&datum=nad83
• Our pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gkliot/USAMtPugh

Canada - British Columbia - Vancouver and Mt Whistler:

• Mt Whistler:

• http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/todo/summer/hiking/hiking.htm

• A map - http://media.intrawest.com/whistler/maps/2007_hiking_map.pdf
• The are a number of very short hikes and very long hikes there: 
  • http://www.clubtread.org/trips.htm
• Long day hikes:

• Singing pass - to Russle lake - (23 km -1800 meter elevation, 4-7 hours). Joins also the Musical bumps hike
  
• Garabaldi Lake\Black Tusk (23 km - 1800 meter elevation, 4-7 hours)
• Wedgemount Trail (14km - 1800 meter elevation,4-7 hours)

• The Musical Bumps (need to take the gondola)
  
• http://www.clubtread.org/musicbmp.htm
• The gondola to the top is 30$ per person

Olympic Peninsula:

• Olympic National Park
  • maps:
  • http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/upload/wildernessmap.pdf
  • http://www.nps.gov/archive/olym/wic/mapsolduchohreservation.gif
  • http://www.olympic.national-park.com/map.htm
  • Fees and reservations:
    
    • http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm
  • Drive in campgrounds:
    • http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/campgrounds.htm
  • Wilderness Camping Permits
    • http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/wilderness-permits.htm
    • 5$ to register per group + 2$ per night per person
• Ferry
  • Ferries web site: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/wave2go/
  • We need Edmonds - Kingston or Seattle - Bainbridge (I did  not figure out if the prices are for one direction or there and back).
  • http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Bainbridge+Island,+WA,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=image
    Also it seems we can buy tickets, but not make reservation fore some specific hour, so it means we might wait there for long, if too many people came before us.
  • Or we can drive via Tacoma, which is a loop, but maybe not much longer, since we don't have to wait for the ferry.
• High Divide Loop trek
  
  • http://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/high-divide-loop.htm
  • http://www.nps.gov/archive/olym/wic/dsoduhidi.htm
  • http://www.trailsnw.com/hike_description.php?hike_num=67
  • http://www.grandcanyontreks.org/highdivide.html
  • http://www.windsox.us/NWEST/nwhigh.html
  • maps:
    • http://www.nps.gov/archive/olym/wic/mapsolduchohreservation.gif
• Additional General tips: 
• Short hikes of things to see – hurricane ridge, sol-duc falls, and the hoh rain forest. Definitely all of them are very beautiful.
• There are some longer hikes in the Sol-Duc valley that are supposed to be nice – to like deer lake & lunch lake.
  
• There are MANY additional multi day hikes in the Olympics.