Our less-hardy group of soft men had the benefit of fancy equipment, good route information, and good weather forecasts. In fact, the weather forecast was for rain on the Wednesday we planned to leave. So we postponed a couple days and took off after work Friday August 24. Andy and John met me at my place at 7pm and we took two cars to the Suiattle Road at Downey Creek. We'd stopped to eat in Arlington, and it was nearly 10pm. So we decided to car camp and finish the shuttle the next morning.
John wanted us to test some gear, and dress up for photographs. So he passed out bright shirts, jackets, and rain gear. He also handed me a sleeping bag for testing. It was an interesting down bag, with jacket sleeves built in, and a drawstring at the foo t end. Hmmm, that's interesting! A down jacket/bag. I tried it on. It felt a little wet. Sniff... sniff... what's that smell? "Hey John, this bag is pretty wet", I whined.
He uttered a groan and came over. "Uh oh, my cats peed on this bag!"
"Yikes!" I cried out and took it off. Fortunately, John had two test bags with him. So I took the other one. It was nice and dry. Ahh... nothing like a nice, non-cat urined sleeping bag. The best kind, if ya ask me! It had zippers in the shoulders so you could poke out your arms, and a drawstring at the bottom. So I had a down vest/sleeping bag instead of jacket. Things were starting out pretty good.
After a nice sleep, dreaming of cats marking their territory, I woke up in my station wagon. We put all the gear in John's car and in two hours drove back out the Suiattle, then up to Cascade Pass. After a bit more gear fussing we hoisted our packs, each weighing about 40 lbs for our planned five-day journey.
The 1.5 hour Cascade Pass trail was in excellent condition to the pass, with splendid views of Johannesburg, Sahale and other famous peaks. En route we briefly checked out an abandoned trail that heads towards Boston Basin. We continued up the path toward s Cashe Col, then cramponned up the glacier to the col. There was a bit of a moat problem. John and Andy are both highly experienced and easily stepped across. I took a much more careful route, hugging the ice and firmly planting the axe pick. After sever al false attempts, I managed to inch my way over the gap and up the gravelly slope to the top of the col. There was a grand scene of peaks and Koolade Lake.
Magic Peak seemed like a good objective for the day. Instead of dropping down to the lake far below, we decided to climb it from the col. So we dropped our packs, and scrambled up the easy ridge. After a few class 3 moves we summitted the mighty and feare d "Not Magic Peak". Dang! Oops. There was Magic Peak across an unpleasant serrated class 4 ridge from our false summit. C'est la vie. So we dropped back to the col. From Cashe Col is a trail to demure Koolade Lake, our first camp. While in camp we spotted a grey colored bear under Johannesburg, and were visited by a friendly doe.
The next morning we scrambled Magic (for real this time). The route is mostly straightforward, with a little slippery class 3 travel near the top. By 12:15 we were out of camp and hiked to Red Ledge. From a distance, Red Ledge looks difficult. The snow wa s steep and hard just before the ledge, but not a problem in crampons. The ledge turned out to be an easy wide ramp. The trail continues to the Middle Cascade Glacier.
On the glacier there was one crevasse problem with a 10 foot, 80 degree angle ice climb. Andy and John scampered up in their cramponned approach shoes, using their poles with arrest device. I borrowed John's ice tool and with my axe somehow barely made it up the pitch without tumbling far into the crack. At the top, there was a steep descent down the other side on a snowfield. There we saw four geologists, the only people we saw in four days. We traversed on talus and snow to Yang Yang lakes for the secon d camp. This pair of lakes is in a spectacularly serene setting, with trees and heather and grass.
On day three, we took the trail up the ridge, passing a superb campsite, then traversed along the Le Conte Glacier. One crevasse crossing I asked for a belay and the ice tool. It was a spread-eagle step that really wasn't as hard as I made it to be. We ea sily scrambled Old Guard Peak (T3) on some rotten and some good rock. Then down some snow and talus to the South Cascade Glacier (easy travel), then pretty steep snow and talus to White Rocks Lake for our third camp. This lake is quite different from Kool ade and Yang Yang. It's in a barren rock-filled area. One of the lakes was choked with ice. Clearly the glaciers had recently retreated from this area. There is a grand view of Dome Peak and glaciers to the south.
The fourth day, we followed a trail that seemed to descend way too low. So we stayed high and traversed on heather, talus, and snow to the Dana Glacier. It was a straightforward ascent to the base of Spire Point. We climbed up Spire (class 4), then droppe d towards Cub Lake. The trail is in good shape to the lake. Beyond the lake is a fabulous blueberry patch, which severely restricted travel. Much stained, we continued to a camp at the upper end of Batchelor Creek.
The trail down Batchelor is very brushy in sections, but easy to follow. We got wet from the dew. The Downey Creek trail is in very good condition, with a few muddy sections and some possibly slippery bridges. That area was a nice contrast to the high cou ntry, with superb rain forest moss carpeting and some huge trees.
We drove my car back to Cascade Pass to get the other car, stopping at Cascadian Farms for some incredible milkshakes. On the way back, we got round two of milkshakes! Wow, what a way to end a fantastic trip. This trip had the most spectacular scenery I've seen in the Cascade Mountains. I'll be back, that's a certainty!