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Bath Lakes High Route

(USGS Downey Mtn, Lime Mtn, Gamma Peak, Suiattle Pass, Agnes Mtn;

GT Glacier Peak, Holden, McGregor, Cascade Pass)

July 15-20, 2005
(Incomplete Report - First Four Days Only)

Upper Bath Lake

Party: Matt Burton, Mike Torok

Introduction:

The Bath Lakes High Route follows a ridge of 7000-foot peaks in the heart of the Cascades, but the ridge is unnamed, little-traveled, and little-known, so here are some ways to describe it:

The high traverse stretches from Sulphur Mountain on the west to Bannock Mountain on the east. For a further continuation, the crest curves south from Bannock to Sitting Bull and Plummer Peaks, and then back east to Miner’s Ridge, all of which we summitted.
The ridge forms a high divide between Sulphur Creek to the north and the Suiattle River and Canyon Creek to the south.
The views are dominated by Dome Peak to the north and Glacier Peak to the south, plus Bonanza Peak to the east.
The ridge cradles Sulphur Mountain Lake low on its west end, beautiful Bath Lakes high in the center, and Canyon Lake at its east end. There’s also Image Lake, just over the crest of Miner’s Ridge to the south.
Its south face is all verdant bright green steep sloping meadows, and its north face is all cliffy rocks, snow, and glaciers.
The high route doesn’t technically require any climbing, but it was the most continuously steep demanding difficult traverse that Mike and I have made. Crowder justly described one of the meadows as “awesomely steep.”
Around every corner there’s another steep meadow or boulder field, but then around every other corner there’s another bright meadow, sweeping ridge crest, streams tumbling down polished slabs, sparkling tarns, or panoramic summit view.

Bath Lakes High Route

We wanted to make a loop trip, so we came in on the low trail east along the Suiattle River, turned north on trails to Image Lake and Canyon Lake, then took the high route back west to Sulphur Mountain, where we followed the trail back down to the Suiattle River.

Complete Loop Trip

Day One

Suiattle River Trail (1800) to Miner’s Ridge Trail (2800) to Miner’s Junction Camp (4800)

We started with the low end of the route due to fear of rain. The fear was well-founded. The day went from humid to drizzling to raining to just plain wet.

We had originally planned to begin with the high part of the route, but decided to reverse our loop and begin low due to rain and clouds. It rained the first day, and the clouds didn’t clear till the end of the second day, so we were glad not to be trying to navigate the high country.

To reach the trailhead (1800 feet), we had to hike the last 2¼ miles of the Suiattle River Road, because it’s closed where the Downey Creek bridge washed out in the October 2003 floods. To cross Downey Creek, we climbed the makeshift ladder from the shore up onto the concrete bridge, which is standing in the middle of the creek with no approach ramp on its west end. Then we hiked Suiattle River Trail #784 along the river for 10.8 miles to Miner’s RidgeTrail #785 (2800 feet). During the first few miles along the river, we had to go around four washouts. Below we could see the river running gray with the huge amount of silt that washes down from Glacier Peak.

About 1pm it began to drizzle, and by 2pm it was raining steadily. About 6pm we reached the 4800-foot junction with Miner’s Cabin Trail #795, feeling totally tired from hiking in the rain. We made camp and had dinner while the rain slacked off. Further flurries of rain and drips off the trees continued throughout the night.

Matt wet and tired at camp, but at least I have tea.

9:30 hours, 15.5 miles, 3380 gain.

Day Two

Miner’s Junction Camp (4800) to Lady Camp (6200) to Plummer (7870).

We slept late due to rain. At Lady Camp, we emerged from dark confines of the forest to the wide-open verdantly-meadowed hillsides of Miner’s Ridge. Plummer’s slopes were fields of bright flowers amid the glowing mist. Plummer’s summit emerged from wreaths of cloud to reveal glimpses of the wide wild terrain around us.

Miner's Ridge near Lady Camp

All morning long, the rain continued to drum on the tent, so we just stayed in bed till 11:30. Well, at least the 14-hour nap helped me catch up on my sleep deficit. It was still misty and damp as we headed up the trail to the junction with the Suiattle Pass trail, and then up to Lady Camp at 6200 feet. Here the terrain makes a breath-taking change of foliage from enclosed forest to open meadows. We had walked through a few flowery meadows earlier, but here the slope of Miner’s Ridge stood up above us like a terraced green wall practically glowing in the damp overcast. While we pumped water, a marmot even came out to greet us.

We set up camp and headed up the eastern ridge toward Plummer. The lower slopes of Plummer were wonderful fields of flower, with their colors accented in the soft misty light. Higher up the peak was rocky but easy scrambling, with the crest hidden in the clouds.

We were actually lucky to reach the summit late in the day (6:30pm) because the clouds began to break up just after we arrived. Over the next hour, more and more views opened up: the jagged crest east of us, parts of the wall of Fortress, segments of the ridge to Cloudy, the summit of Glacier, green valleys along tomorrow’s route, the shadow of our own summit on the clouds below.

As we descended, the sun angled low across the crest and cast a rainbow halo of my own shadow onto the clouds below. After dinner at camp, we sat in the meadow with our hot beverages and watched the sunset light up Glacier Peak as the clouds filled the valley below.

7 hours, 5 miles, 3300 gain

Meadows ascending Plummer

Rocks ascending Plummer

Plummer Summit

Halo on Plummer

Day Three
From Lady Camp (6200), up to 6400 and down to Image Lake (6056), up to Miner’s Ridge (6768),
down to 5350 and up to Sitting Bull (7759), back down to 5350 and up to Canyon Trail Camp (6300)

Image Lake

We began with a refreshing morning traverse along the flank of Miner’s Ridge to Image Lake. This was one of the most enjoyable early mornings I’ve had in the mountains. We watched the sunrise light up Glacier Peak and left camp about 6:30am. In the cool morning shadows, the trail to Image Lake angled up gently around wide green curves of the ridge. Along the way, we enjoyed the flowers beside the trail and the views of morning light climbing down the forested ridges and deep stream valleys below Glacier Peak. As we crossed from shadow to sunlight, a herd of deer ran down-slope across the trail in front of us. The trail traversed up to a junction with the un-maintained Canyon Lake trail, and there was Image Lake below us.

Image Lake lived up to its reputation as a scenic gem, beautiful from every angle. As we approached from the west, the lake glowed deep green reflecting the opposite hillside. From the north shore, the lake reflected a perfect line of trees framing Glacier’s white cone. When I went in for a swim, the water was a perfect refreshing warm-cool temperature, and the scenery reflected in waves rippling out around me. Meanwhile Mike circumnavigated the lake and backtracked to the Canyon Lake junction, so that he could hike the whole trail. I hiked up the slopes north of the lake to meet Mike at the col (6400) where the trail crosses Miner’s ridge. From high on the northern hillside, the lake was a blue gem surrounded by green meadows and backed by big peaks.

A brief side trip took us to the summit of Miner’s Ridge (6768) for a grandstand view of the Bath Lakes Traverse Peaks and a sweeping panorama of the surrounding area: south to Image Lake, the Suiattle valley & Glacier Peak; east to Plummer and Bonanza; north to the Canyon Creek valley, Canyon Lake, the Bath Lakes Peak, and Dome Peak. On the way down, a marmot came out its hole and posed for me with Image Lake below.

We took the Canyon Lake trail in a broad sweep down and around the head of the Canyon Creek drainage. The unmaintained trail was in good condition, with the tread missing in just a few gullies on the side of the ridge. We continued to the second fork of Canyon Creek (5350) where we dropped our backs for a side trip to Sitting Bull Mtn.

Sitting Bull gave us our first experience of off-trail travel on steep meadows. Going up a thousand feet on the meadows, we learned to carefully watch the colors of the greenery ahead, since some plants gave better footing than others. A snow finger took us to the notch south of the summit, where we faced a couple hundred feet steep third class (or more) scrambling and then easier terrain to the summit (7759).

We went down to the trail, then followed the trail as it climbed back up to about 6300 feet traversing the head of the valley before dropping to Canyon Lake, which was already dropping in to shadow. Up high in the evening sunshine, we decided to make camp where the trail was traversing a delightful region of small streams splashing down curving rock slabs. I found a small waterfall that for an evening shower before dinner, and we watched the moon rise as the sun faded.

12:30 hours, 9 miles, 4500 gain.

Glacier Peak Sunrise

Image Lake from Miner's Ridge

Miner's Ridge
(Click for Annotated Labels)

Sitting Bull

Canyon Lake Trail Camp

Day Four
Canyon Trail Camp (6300) to Canyon Lake (5606) to Bannock (7620) to Totem Pass (6600)
to Stonehenge Col (7200) to Stonehenge Summits (7362 & 7380) to Stonehenge Camp (7000)

The Bath Lakes High Route stretching west from Bannock

We dropped down to buggy Canyon Lake then climbed back up to Totem Pass. A side trip to Bannock provided a view of the whole length of the high route stretching west. We traversed the snowy north side of the ridge from Totem Pass to Stonehenge Col. Then we took turns climbing the summits flanking the col and set another fine high camp on flat contours south of the col.

We left camp about 8am traversed another half mile before the trail dropped steeply down to Canyon Lake (5605). The lake itself was clear water nestled against the cliffs rising to Bannock Mountain, but below the lake were large boggy flats which produced many bugs, so we paused only briefly. Just west of the lake were same higher grassy flats and a big campsite, but it was also very buggy – glad we didn’t camp here. About a hundred feet uphill on the far side of the lake, we found a beaten track traversing westward. Circa 5800 we reached the stream draining from Totem Pass and made easy progress up the gully to the pass (6600).

We dropped our packs and headed east up the ridge crest to Bannock. A couple hundred feet above the pass, there were some nice campsites. We stayed on the ridge crest except for side-hilling around an outcrop at 7000 (Mike went over it, but there were some fourth class moves). Bannock’s summit (7620) provided wide views ahead and behind. Looking back south, the head of Canyon Creek was a broad curving sweep of rock, snow, and meadows. Looking ahead, the Bath Lakes traverse stretched west across point after point.

We returned to Totem Pass and traversed another steep meadow on the south side of Point 7078 to reach the 6800-foot col on the far side. Here we made a snow traverse on the north side to bypass the next couple cliffy points. We descended onto the glacier on the north side, traversed the glacier at about 6500, ascended a scree slope to the upper glacier, and then ascended snow to the 7200-foot col on Stonehenge Ridge. (The standard traverse runs on the meadows on the south side of these peaks and angles down to the track at Canyon Lake. To connect to Totem Pass, our high northern snow route is much easier.)

Two summits flanked the col. The map said the NW point was higher, but the SW looked higher. They were both less than 200 feet above the col, so Mike went up the SW summit while I did the NW one. We spent quite a while taking pictures and yelling across the gap, then we switched summits and did the same thing again. The SW summit was higher.

A couple hundred feet down on the south side of the col was a flat area where we set up another high camp about 7pm.

Mike at Canyon Lake

Looking Back from Stonehenge to Bannock

Matt on Stonehenge Summit

Sunset Casting Shadows Upward onto Clouds

All afternoon long, clouds slowly thickened in the sky until there was now a solid ceiling of clouds. For just a few moments at sunset, the sun shot through beneath the western edge of the clouds, casting a thin band of red light onto peaks to our east. With the clouds as a backdrop overhead, you could actually see the low sun cast shadows upward from some western peaks onto the clouds. During the night, the clouds dispersed completely.

11 hours, 6.4 miles, 3800 gain.