"I would definitely recommend this trip to a friend."
SPIDER MEADOW TO KENNEDY HOT SPRINGS
GLACIER PEAK WILDERNESS
KEITH, KEN AND SHADOW KONIGSMARK
SEPTEMBER 6-11, 1992
We had hiked through Glacier Peak Wilderness in Sept 91 and liked it so much that we decided to come back again and hike from the SE side of Glacier Peak around the north and east sides until we intersected the trail we had started on last year (Kennedy Hot Springs). Morven would go with us to our start point at the Phelps Creek trailhead and hike in with us for the first day and night to Spider Meadow. Keith, Shadow, and I would then continue on northward on the second day and for the rest of the week while Morven hiked back to the car. He would pick us up six days later at the Kennedy Hot Springs trailhead. We had estimated the distance to be about 56 miles, so would need to average about 10 miles a day, plus whatever side trips we took.
Sun, Sept 6- We got up early for a long drive up to Leavenworth, where we stopped for a good breakfast, and then north from there until we hit the Chiwawa River road. We followed the gravel road several miles toward its end at the Trinity mining camp, and turned uphill to the Phelps Creek trailhead just before Trinity. We were surprised at the number of cars parked here already. It was windy and cold, so we hurried to get our packs on and get moving on the trail so we could warm up.
The trail followed Phelps Creek for about 5 miles until we broke out of forest into the open spaces of Spider Meadow. A few snowflakes were falling and it was mostly cloudy so we wondered if we would get snowed in. We set up camp in a nice, grassy site next to Phelps Creek. After gathering wood, we all decided to jump in the tent to warm up, and all fell asleep for an hour or so. After waking up, we went on a walk up the valley and through the meadow to enjoy the nice scenery.
We built a big fire upon returning to our camp and broke open the bottle of wine that Morven had carried in. That warmed us up as we began to cook our dinner of Korean bulogki (barbeque beef), soup, rice, and broccoli. The dinner was great and we kept the big fire going as the temperature dropped, and until we were ready for bed.
Mon, Sept 7- I woke up at 1:00AM to Morven's snoring and dragged my sleeping bag and a tarp outside to try to sleep. It was freezing, so I buried myself inside the bag until I heard Keith come out of the tent. He got a fire going, which made it easier to get out of my sleeping bag. When I checked the thermometer, it said it was 26 degrees! At least the sun was out and skies were blue, so we were anxious to get going.
After breakfast and packing up, we said goodbye to Morven as he headed back south along Phelps Creek and we headed north up Spider Meadow towards Spider Gap. At the end of the U-shaped valley, the trail switchbacked steeply uphill towards the lowest spot between Red and Dumbell Mountains. We warmed up quickly and changed into shorts during a break as we looked down upon the entire valley. As we kept climbing, we finally reached Spider Glacier, which we had to walk uphill on for about a mile in order to reach Spider Gap.
There was one big crevasse to watch out for, and footing was slippery, so it was a long, tiring, uphill climb on the icy snow. When we finally reached Spider Gap (7100 feet), we climbed right into a freezing wind from the north which made us quickly pull back out our jeans, sweatshirts, and gloves. The view to the north was spectacular, looking down on Upper Lyman Lakes, meadows and to Bonanza Peak and other mountains covered with fresh white snow from the night before.
We then had to hike downhill the same distance we had just climbed on the other side of Spider Gap, and the footing was slippery and dangerous on the ice. We came out at the base of Lyman Glacier, which cascaded almost vertically down the face of Chiwawa Mountain until it came to a 50 ft high solid vertical wall of ice at the edge of the lake. We hiked through the Upper Lakes basin then came out into the huckleberry meadows surrounding Lyman Lake, which were just starting to turn fall colors.
As we looked around, we could see several black bears in four different areas of the meadows munching on the huckleberries before going into hibernation. We kept our eyes open for any on the trail ahead. We had a long downhill descent to Lyman Lake where we stopped for a much-needed break and for lunch. We knew we had a long, uphill climb ahead to get to Cloudy Pass. After climbing through forest, we broke out into meadows again, where we had beautiful views of huge snowy peaks, glaciers, and Lyman Lake. We stopped for pictures, to enjoy the scenery, and to catch our breath.
From Cloudy Pass, we headed downhill with a view northward up the deep Agnes Creek valley. We hiked another2 miles before deciding to stop for the night near the intersection with the trail to Image Lake. We found an old miner's cabin in a meadow and camped near it, even using some folding chairs from the cabin around our fire. We were set for a nice relaxing night, but clouds rolled in and it started pouring rain on us at 7:00. Luckily, we had eaten already, so we just threw everything under tarps, crawled in the tent, and stayed there during the heavy downpour until we fell asleep.
Tuesday, Sept 8- I woke up again in the middle of the night to find a puddle of water forming under my sleeping bag. The ground cloth was catching water off of the tent side and funneling it under the floor. After readjusting, we tried to sleep again, but the noise of the rain and wind made it difficult. It poured all night long, and we wondered if we were going to be wet, cold, and unable to see any of the scenery for the rest of the trip. At 7:00 AM, we rolled out just in time to have the rain start to taper off. We carried what we needed through big puddles to the miners shack to get dressed and to cook up hot coffee and oatmeal for breakfast.
The clouds started to break up while we ate, and by the time we packed up and left, blue sky was showing through the clouds. We began a long, downhill descent to Miner's Creek, crossing streams which were gushing from the rains. We came to an open overlook and saw swirling clouds being whipped up the valley and Glacier Peak sticking up above, covered by fresh snow. After reaching the valley and crossing Miner's Creek, we had a 3.5 mile, fairly level walk paralleling the creek through a deep, old growth forest full of huge cedar and fir trees.
We finally reached the Suiattle River crossing and found the cocoa-brown river roaring from the rains and from melting glacial runoff. Luckily, there was a good bridge available to cross on, and we decided to stop for lunch in the middle of the bridge, and to use the open sunshine to dry out our wet tent, sleeping bags, and ponchos. We then had another long, 4 mile stretch of level walking through forest before the trail began to climb steeply up the slope of Vista Ridge. We climbed for 3 miles before breaking out into open meadows. We found a nice campsite in a clump of trees, with beautiful views across Miner's Creek valley and of Glacier Peak.
The wind started to blow and the temperature dropped so we ate in the tent, using the campstove to cook with. To top off the day, a full moon appeared over Glacier Peak, giving us a spotlight on the entire valley before we went to sleep.
Weds, Sept 9- We woke up early to cold temperatures, but lots of sunshine hitting our camp. We packed up and headed uphill through the open mountain meadows. We were traversing the northern side of Glacier Peak, and crossed through big, open valleys full of streams, vegetation just starting to turn fall colors, and wide views of snow-capped peaks in all directions. After 4 miles, we came to the edge of the Milk Creek valley. We could see the trail switchbacking steeply uphill on the other side of the valley, so we knew we had a tough, uphill climb ahead. First, we had to switchback steeply downhill for several miles to reach Milk Creek.
The bridge had washed out, so we decided to take a lunch break while we figured out how and where to cross. I dragged three logs out of the woods to throw across the stream, and we made our own, shaky bridge crossing. As expected, we then began a long, tiring, hot, uphill stretch up the other side of the valley.
We eventually reached open meadows again, and came across a beautiful waterfall tumbling down a rock wall into a flat meadow, While Shadow took a cool dip in the stream, we rested and washed the sweat off from our uphill climb. After another mile or so of climbing, we finally reached Mica Lake, a beautiful, deep blue, crystal clear lake in rocky bowl.
Three guys were skinny dipping, so we went to the far, uphill side of the lake, and found a perfect campsite on a grassy meadow, overlooking the lake, the deep Milk Creek valley, and the huge, snowy peaks to the east. We enjoyed the next few hours, exploring the open country above the lake, and lounging in the sun on our foam mats. Shadow and I hiked up to the edge of Milk Lake glacier, where we both took a bath in the freezing glacial stream. That night, we built a roaring fire against a flat rock, had a big dinner of freeze-dried food, then cooked up some popcorn while we watched the stars and the full moon.
Both of us noticed strange lights bouncing across the sky and up from behind the mountains, and never did figure out what they were. We stayed up a bit later than normal to enjoy the perfect weather, the full moon, and the tons of stars before crawling into the tent for the night.
Thurs, Sept 10- After a scrambled egg breakfast, we packed up and headed southward towards Fire Creek Pass, again with clear skies and lots of sun. We had a steep climb to the pass, and stopped for pictures, to rest a bit, and to enjoy the first views of the peaks to the south. We then began to descend through open meadows which, on the western side of Glacier Peak, were filled with bright orange, red, and purple colored blueberry bushes. Entire hillsides and creek valleys looked like bouquets of flowers, and the colors were spectacular.
We met a few hikers along the way who warned us about bears along the trail further ahead that were enjoying the blueberries. It looked like they should be around, but we never saw any. We climbed a slight incline, passing over the crest of a ridge leading into the Pumice Creek valley and came to an awesome view of Glacier Peak rising up behind acres and acres of fall-colored meadows which stretched down the hillside.
We continued on through the "bouquet" meadows, crossing Pumice Creek and heading uphill towards Glacier Creek. We decided to stop at Glacier Creek and set up camp, then take a side trip up to the edge of Kennedy Glacier. So, after lunch and getting the tent set up, we found a little trail that climbed through woods until it broke out into the open directly above the Kennedy Glacier valley. The view of the glacier and of the entire Glacier Peak was unbelieveable.
We kept climbing up the glacial moraine all the way to the edge of the glacier. The ice was deep blue in the crevasses and rose at least 50 feet above our heads at the edge. We walked up the north side of the glacier a ways, then decided to cross around the front end of it and head up the southern side. The views in every direction were incredible and the huge, glacial ice slabs were spectacular to see. We explored and enjoyed the scenery and the quiet for several hours before reluctantly heading back towards our camp for our last night.
When we reached our camp though, we were shocked to find that some idiots had erected their tent right next to ours and intended to use our same site. We were furious. They weren't around so, after debating whether we ought to just rip apart their gear, we decided we would move on instead and find another site, knowing that if we met them we'd probably kill them. I left them a nasty note explaining what jerks they were, then we headed off down the trail. We saw no new sites for several miles, and by now it was getting close to dark. We came across a spotted owl only about 10 feet away in a tree who wanted to watch what we were doing. We decided to head down to Kennedy Creek, figuring that there must be campsites there. The creek was roaring, and we ended up having to skid across it on a fallen log to reach a decent campsite. We managed to get set up by dark and enjoyed a late, last dinner in the wilds, and a final campfire until next year.
Fri, Sept 11- As always, we were anxious to get packed up, on the trail, and back to civilization, despite all the enjoyment of the past six days. We had about a 6 mile hike to get to the Kennedy Springs trailhead where Morven would pick us up. On the way, Keith got stung by a yellow jacket, which made us both nervous that more might be around. We intersected the Kennedy Hot Springs trail, and began to see more people. We were retracing the same trail now that we had started on during last years trip, so the scenery was familiar. We reached the end by 11:00 and hoped that Morven would be there soon. Our wait turned out to be a bit longer than we hoped, since Morven didn't get there until 2:00, but at least he came to pick us up. He had brought Tim's Chips, Henry's beer, and other food which we took care of immediately. Shadow was ready to head home too and eager for his bed.
As we drove south on I-5 towards Seattle, we were just in time for rush hour traffic, which I wasn't the least bit ready for yet after just coming out of total peace and quiet in the wilderness. Again, as always, the hot shower felt great, and our appetites were ready for real food. We went to Round Table Pizza for their huge salad bar, good pizza, and a couple of pitchers of beer. After that, we were ready for some needed sleep.
The next day, we cleaned up, shopped, got a new washer (since my other one had broken), and tried to figure out why my car wasn't working ( a spark plug cable had shaken loose). We had dinner reservations at Hiram's and enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner to top off the week. This trip would be hard to beat with its variety of scenery (forests, glaciers, mountain peaks, lakes, scenery, and fall colors), but we were already thinking about where we could go for next year's trip.
Note: This is backcountry wilderness travel. You are responsible for informing yourself of the hazards and taking the necessary precautions.
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