Red, White, and Blue!

Heather and I spent the weekend in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. What a weekend! We hiked up the North Fork Sauk River Trail which is in wonderful shape. Kudos to the Forest Service for the great work recently done on this trail. It is still long-don't believe the old reports of 8.5 miles-it is closer to 10.5 miles-and it is still steep-you'll climb 3,000 feet in 3.5 miles. But the payoff? Red Pass. White Pass. And Blue, blue skies. We hiked north on the PCT up and over Red Pass and then dropped 1,000 feet into Glacier Meadows where we made camp by a small stream at the edge of the meadows. While White Pass was hopping with climbers, horse parties and lots of other hikers-Heather and I practically had the entire Glacier Meadows to ourselves. Picked berries the next morning-scrambled the White Chuck Cinder Cone- had lunch on a small knoll above Red Pass-had to retrieve Heather's camera after she dropped it about 500 feet off the pass-still works! Then did a side trip to White Pass. Made it back to the truck at sunset. It was a 27 mile weekend and a highlight of the summer! Yep! This glorious destination will be in my upcoming Backpacking book--how'd you guess?!