Alpine Washington

On a beautiful Sunday the day after Halloween, I hit the trail at about 7:30 AM, just steps from the summit of Snoqualmie Pass. My watch reads 8:30, since we had just set our clocks back the night before. As expected, there are quite a few hikers at the trailhead already - about 20 cars. This is one of the more popular hikes in the Snoqualmie area. Shockingly, in all my years of hiking I have never been to the famous Kendall Katwalk . The hike starts out on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), but about 100' in, I veer left on the abandoned Cascade Crest Trail. It's a little bit overgrown near the bottom, but generally in very good condition. The CCT cuts off one mile each way on this hike, and I see no one else on this secti...

Our family tries to do one backpacking trip every summer, and it's usually quite difficult to fit in among busy schedules for gymnastics, work, triathlons, and all the other events that seem to fill up summer calendars. This year, we didn't start hiking until late July due to COVID concerns, but I'd still love to get in our overnight before the kids go back to remote school in September. As it turns out, the Labor Day weekend is free, so I make a plan to do a PCT hike near Stevens Pass, in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. It's unclear how many people we'll see, but we should be able to check off five lakes on my ALW list in a relatively easy 11 mile through hike from Stevens Pass to Tunnel Creek. Since this is a through hike, two cars are needed. We drop off Lucas' car at the Tunnel Creek trailhead, a few miles west of Stevens Pass. After a short drive, we reach the pass and have a quick bite to eat at the PCT trailhead on the south side of Highway 2. The forecas...