Not wanted to deal with traffic on Friday after work I left early Sat morning for the Sourdough trailhead. I was on the trail at 8am working my way up 5,000 ft in 5 miles to reach the ridge the lookout sits on. On my way up I meet two other hiker from the Methow and was traveling with them on and off. Once at the ridge I turned left to find the Sourdough summit. This is where I made my first of many time errors on this trip. I went to highest point to discover that over there there was a higher point. Well after a bit of wandering toward the summit I finally took up my smartphone with the Gaia app and used it to work my way to the summit.
Ok this done, time to get going on to the rest of this trip. It was raining now lightly and I put my rain pants on for all the brush I was about to work through descending Sourdough to Ross dam trail. This trail is quite brushy and takes paying attention to stay on it.
Sourdough lookout
Ross lake from the ridge
The next trail is quite nice and I was seeing more people now. It was a pleasure to be on well maintained trail.
Ross lake
River leading to Ross lake
The next trail I was on was Big Beaver trail. This is another well maintained trail. One of the highlights of the trip was the old growth trees along this trail and Little Beaver trail. I did not take any photos of these trees as I could not capture the size of them. It is a rare opportunity for me to roam among old giants like this. These trees were 6 to 8 feet in diameter.
I pass over Beaver pass and on down to the junction with Little Beaver trail. Once near the bottom of Big Beaver trail I make another time error. My gps show the trail crossing the river at this one point. I remember Jessica and Brad talking about this bushwhack to cross the river. I was on a very good trail that lead up river and descending. I spent a bit of time on this good trail trying to figure what I should do. I went with the gps and my friends trip reports and crossed the river on logs bushwhacking to the other side. While I was doing this I knew something was wrong. I knew the trails around here were used by people riding horses. While making this route go I took my time to understand it so I could have an easier time on the way back. I found the way people had gone and was on the Little Beaver trail. Oh, it is dark now as I am doing all this.
I cruise along the Little Beaver trail that turns into the Brush Creek trail. I take two one hour naps during the night. During the morning I switch to the Chilliwack River trail. To cross the Chilliwack river you take a cable car if you are a person.
The Chilliwack River trail leads to Hannegan pass.
Hannegan pass
Looking back to valley I came up.
It is a nice downhill here to the parking lot where I will turn around to repeat what I just did.
Back up I go toward Hannegan pass.
I am going back the way I came. I take one one hour and one two hour nap on the way back. I had two time wasting moments during the night. I came through two different camps losing the trail. It took a bit of wandering using the gps to and Gaia to get myself back on track. Navigation at night in a spaghetti system of camp trails is a hassle. On the way back I ponder the transition from Little Beaver to Big Beaver trail. Luckily for me I pass the point on the Little Beaver trail where I entered and come upon this sign.
Leading to this very nice bridge. Everyone who does the route, take note!
I am working my way up toward Beaver pass and I see this sign on a tree.
I wonder what it could be for.
Beaver Pass shelter.
I am at the base of Sourdough now and I would like to be finished by dark. I switch to a faster pace to see what I can do about getting up to Sourdough summit and back to the ridge in the light.
This photo is for Brad as it is the first water you come to on the accent to Sourdough lookout. There is some standing water from snow melt on the way over to the summit. I ran out in this section for 15 min until I got water on the way down to the trailhead.
Here some photos from the lookout ridge on Sourdough
My time from the saddle to the summit of Sourdough and back is a little over one hour. Here are a few photos from the summit.
If you zoom in, you can see the lookout in the center of the photo.
More photos from the golden hour from photographer's point of view. A trailrunner with common scenes would be well below this point.
At this point I am below the saddle and working my way down to my car at the trailhead 5.000 ft and 5 miles below me. . At about halfway down I decide that miles on my gps are too slow. I switch to elevation. It is more satisfying to watch the drop in elevation to show where I am at. 10:00 pm and one last photo to close this trip out.
If you had common sense and wanted a very nice daytrip, I would suggest hiking up to Hannegan pass. Maybe if you wanted more of a workout, hike up to Sourdough lookout or summit. I nice 50 miler would be to hike from Sourdough to Hannegan. If you are in the same mental state of Brad and I do this starting from Hannegan pass and avoid the 5,000 ft of descent to finish off a 100 mile plus route.
Ok now for the mind part of this, this route is called mind/body challenge Sourdough sufferfest. For me wandering amongst the sights and sounds of the wildness is not a suffer. That is who I am as a person. Reading poetry is sufferfest for me. I really enjoy a good story to read or listen to. I realize that Gary Snyder is very good at his craft and through his life has suffered and able to bring this to those that read his works. I remember the last line from this poem from elementary school days by Robert Frost that describes my wildness trail running.
."But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep."
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