Hiking in the Cascade Mountains
The trail up to West Cady Ridge was one of my earlier Northwest adventures, yet remains one of the most colorful hikes I've been on.
You're ultimate destination is a collection of beautiful open meadows surrounded by snow covered peaks, and if you go in the early fall like my group did, the explosion of colors will be awe inspiring.
In recalling the experiences of that day, in addition to the colors two other things stick out most in my mind; the hordes of berries and the long drive in to the trailhead.
This hike introduced me to Washington State's forest service roads.
When reading your guide book, make a note of whether or not the trailhead is off of one, as most of them are, and take note of just how many miles you have to cover before reaching your destination.
Depending on your vehicle, you will be going no more than 15-20 miles an hour, and much of the time you'll be moving at a crawl regardless of what you're driving.
These are (mostly) un-paved gravel roads used to connect the National Forests to the more heavily used state highways.
You will learn that they don't lack for potholes, some looking big enough to have been formed by meteors, and at some points they are only wide enough to accommodate one car at a time.
Some spots get so narrow, that if two cars moving in opposite directions arrive at the same point, one will have to reverse to an area where they can move to the side.
I didn't know any of this when we set out, and by the time we reached the turnoff from Highway 2 at Beckler Road in Skykomish I felt like we were there and was relieved.
I had no idea I'd be driving for another hour, and beating up my less than all-terrain zipcar no less.
But it was cool to travel deeper and deeper into the forest.
At many points you find yourself on a ridge where there is nothing but a wall of trees in every direction and you can feel yourself being cut off from the rest of the world.
It brings on a very eerie sense of isolation.
So we traveled deeper and deeper into the Henry M.
Jackson Wilderness until we reached the trailhead for West Cady Ridge, which sits right next to a very pretty creek that makes for a nice camp site if that's on your agenda.
It was a spectacularly clear and warm day, perfect hiking weather, especially considering we picked a hike that promised great views.
It was easy to be excited.
Almost as soon as you leave the trailhead, you cross over the Skykomish River on a large wooden bridge, and the first of many photo opts presents itself.
Throughout the majority of the hike, you are deep in old-growth forest, which provided us with much appreciated shade on this particularly clear and sunny day.
The trail climbs at a moderate grade for as long as you are under tree cover, and encounters a few small streams and mini cascades along the ridge.
At the two mile mark, you come to a saddle with Excelsior Mountain, and its here that the switchbacks begin.
As is the case with most trails, the switchbacks climb at a much steeper rate than the preceding 2 miles, but you cover a lot of elevation in a short span, and before you know it you are out of the trees and into the start of amazing big sky meadows.
I can remember marveling at all of the colorful blueberry and huckleberry bushes everywhere I looked.
At about the 4 mile mark, we reached another ridge, and from here a dirt trail winds and weaves it's way through the bushes.
When you look up, beyond the evergreens that line the meadows, beautiful snow covered peaks remind you of just how high in the sky you are.
It was Glacier Peak just to our north that stood out most prominently and left me the most in awe.
Then I looked west and saw three more impressive peaks one after another.
These were Keyes, Monte Cristo, and Sloan Peaks.
We had seen enough.
There was no doubt in any of our minds that it wasn't going to get much better than this, so we dropped our packs, picked our spot and had a long lunch under the clear blue sky.
The scenery remains one of the most stunning I've seen in all my ventures into the mountains.
The way down was slowed by our berry picking, as it's a really hard temptation to resist.
I found myself emptying any bag or plastic container I had from lunch and filling it with more and more berries.
By the time we got back to the trailhead, my pack was full with 5 bags of that took a few months to polish off.
We managed to drive out just as dusk was settling in, and seeing that wall of trees surrounding us once more as we descended, with the sky growing darker, was enough to make me feel very small in comparison.
So an hour later we were back on Highway 2, the skinny, windy gravel road behind us, almost hidden from sight until daylight makes its turn-off visible again, and another group can wind their way deep into the mountains to enjoy one of the Northwest's many tucked away gems.
You're ultimate destination is a collection of beautiful open meadows surrounded by snow covered peaks, and if you go in the early fall like my group did, the explosion of colors will be awe inspiring.
In recalling the experiences of that day, in addition to the colors two other things stick out most in my mind; the hordes of berries and the long drive in to the trailhead.
This hike introduced me to Washington State's forest service roads.
When reading your guide book, make a note of whether or not the trailhead is off of one, as most of them are, and take note of just how many miles you have to cover before reaching your destination.
Depending on your vehicle, you will be going no more than 15-20 miles an hour, and much of the time you'll be moving at a crawl regardless of what you're driving.
These are (mostly) un-paved gravel roads used to connect the National Forests to the more heavily used state highways.
You will learn that they don't lack for potholes, some looking big enough to have been formed by meteors, and at some points they are only wide enough to accommodate one car at a time.
Some spots get so narrow, that if two cars moving in opposite directions arrive at the same point, one will have to reverse to an area where they can move to the side.
I didn't know any of this when we set out, and by the time we reached the turnoff from Highway 2 at Beckler Road in Skykomish I felt like we were there and was relieved.
I had no idea I'd be driving for another hour, and beating up my less than all-terrain zipcar no less.
But it was cool to travel deeper and deeper into the forest.
At many points you find yourself on a ridge where there is nothing but a wall of trees in every direction and you can feel yourself being cut off from the rest of the world.
It brings on a very eerie sense of isolation.
So we traveled deeper and deeper into the Henry M.
Jackson Wilderness until we reached the trailhead for West Cady Ridge, which sits right next to a very pretty creek that makes for a nice camp site if that's on your agenda.
It was a spectacularly clear and warm day, perfect hiking weather, especially considering we picked a hike that promised great views.
It was easy to be excited.
Almost as soon as you leave the trailhead, you cross over the Skykomish River on a large wooden bridge, and the first of many photo opts presents itself.
Throughout the majority of the hike, you are deep in old-growth forest, which provided us with much appreciated shade on this particularly clear and sunny day.
The trail climbs at a moderate grade for as long as you are under tree cover, and encounters a few small streams and mini cascades along the ridge.
At the two mile mark, you come to a saddle with Excelsior Mountain, and its here that the switchbacks begin.
As is the case with most trails, the switchbacks climb at a much steeper rate than the preceding 2 miles, but you cover a lot of elevation in a short span, and before you know it you are out of the trees and into the start of amazing big sky meadows.
I can remember marveling at all of the colorful blueberry and huckleberry bushes everywhere I looked.
At about the 4 mile mark, we reached another ridge, and from here a dirt trail winds and weaves it's way through the bushes.
When you look up, beyond the evergreens that line the meadows, beautiful snow covered peaks remind you of just how high in the sky you are.
It was Glacier Peak just to our north that stood out most prominently and left me the most in awe.
Then I looked west and saw three more impressive peaks one after another.
These were Keyes, Monte Cristo, and Sloan Peaks.
We had seen enough.
There was no doubt in any of our minds that it wasn't going to get much better than this, so we dropped our packs, picked our spot and had a long lunch under the clear blue sky.
The scenery remains one of the most stunning I've seen in all my ventures into the mountains.
The way down was slowed by our berry picking, as it's a really hard temptation to resist.
I found myself emptying any bag or plastic container I had from lunch and filling it with more and more berries.
By the time we got back to the trailhead, my pack was full with 5 bags of that took a few months to polish off.
We managed to drive out just as dusk was settling in, and seeing that wall of trees surrounding us once more as we descended, with the sky growing darker, was enough to make me feel very small in comparison.
So an hour later we were back on Highway 2, the skinny, windy gravel road behind us, almost hidden from sight until daylight makes its turn-off visible again, and another group can wind their way deep into the mountains to enjoy one of the Northwest's many tucked away gems.
Source...