August 15 - 16, 2020
Seven years ago Andy proposed to me during a backpacking trip through Cutthroat Pass. We decided to take a break from house work this summer to revisit and finish this hike. We took this trip seven years ago with a couple friends and it ended up being incredibly frightening for everyone (except for me (I've always wanted to be a storm chaser)) because there was a really bad/spectacular thunderstorm at night which ended up washing out trails and roads. Luckily we made it out safely, but had to take a 4.5 hour driving detour to get home due to mudslides covering the roadways. Because of the weather and other circumstances we ended up having to set up camp early at Granite Pass on that trip. The original plan was to camp at Upper Snowy Lake.
Which we did this time around!
Considering all the cars at the trailhead and on the shoulder of the highway I expected the trail to be crowded, but to our delight it was not at all. I think many people use the Cutthroat Pass trailhead as overflow parking for another hike directly across the highway. At 9:30 am we were able to find parking easily. The two toilets at the trailhead were open and clean.
The gradual hike up to the Pass is for the most part shaded. There were several easy stream crossings. It had been a dry summer week so I had to stay a ways back from Andy otherwise I would literally be eating his dust.
We took a quick lunch break at Cutthroat Pass before moving on.
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Cheesin'
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After Cutthroat Pass the remainder of the hike was along the ridge which meant very little to no shade from the hot height of afternoon sun. I loved it. You can't beat the clear blue skies, differing terrain, and 360° views. You can't beat having the trail to yourself and getting glimpses of a chipmunk here and a pika there.
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Rocks on rocks on rocks
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This hike reminded us of the importance of planning and having a good map. We're usually good at reading the trip reports, but this time we only skimmed a couple reports. We usually have a green trails map, but this time had a low-res print out which was pretty much useless. So, we paid the price and ended up hiking all the freaking way past Methow Pass. Luckily we ran into a couple who informed us that they, too, had missed the turn to Snowy Lakes and were backtracking. We turned back and let them know it was probably back another 30-45 minutes but they decided to do it their way. Not sure if they ended up making it because we didn't see them at the lake later that evening.
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| Hiked another 10 minutes past this sign until we realized we had overshot our destination |
Andy had an idea where we may have missed the turn-off so we backtracked and he was right! Earlier we must have been distracted by the views and people who had set up camp in a meadow. We must have been looking left the whole time and missed the unmarked bootpath to the right. Easy to miss.
After making the blazing hot climb to Methow Pass and then having to back track we weren't super stoked to have to make another climb up to Snowy Lakes, but we were happy to be on the right track. I remember the climb up was slooooow. Our legs were exhausted and we were hot and hungry. It's always a great feeling getting to the top, though. I love backpacking and its challenges.
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| Almost....there..... |
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| Relieved that we made it. That's lower Snowy Lake behind me. |
There was one tent at lower Snowy Lake. I'd say there were about 8 tents at upper Snowy Lake where we ended up camping. We set up camp with a sweet view of Golden Horn and made our way to the lake to cool off and filter some water.
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| Andy's "Golden Horn" |
We saw a marmot sunbathing on a hot rock and it reminded us of Mario. Too cute.
There was still a lot of daylight left after setting up camp. We were exhausted but our tent was boiling hot and again, there was very little shade. Andy sucked it up and took a short nap in the tent. I hid behind the shadow of the tent and rested a bit. With my bug net and bug spray I was mostly protected from the annoying biting bugs.
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| Still too bright and hot to sleep. We were exhausted and could barely keep our eyes open. |
It's been a while since I've seen the night sky without any light pollution. We were able to keep our vestibules open all night so I found myself waking up a lot to look outside hoping to catch the tail end of the Perseid meteor shower.
We hiked out with the sunrise illuminating the mountaintops and "just the tip" of Golden Horn.
