Independence & North Lake- Mountain Loop HWY

August 3, 2017

We, Erica & Tia, started out early due to the weather forecast for temps in the mid 90's. The trail is in great condition and we got to Independence Lake quickly. A family was camped there on their first backpacking trip. After scouting out the trail to North Lake, we started the climb up many switchbacks. When we finally got to the ridge, we started down and found two lovely tarns. We realized later that we missed the trail up to the ridge and then down to North Lake. No worries because we had a lovely lunch and swim in the 2nd larger tarn. The trip down was quick. We were getting chased by black flies. I didn't get bitten, but my hiking buddy did. Lovely day hike.

After lunch selfie

After swim selfie

Lunch tarn

Wildflowers of course!

Independence Lake

Independence Lake from the trail above.

Heather-Maple Pass Loop Highway 20 Washington

August 6, 2017- It's a long drive from Seattle to get to the Maple Pass trailhead at the Rainy Pass Picnic Area on HWY 20, but well worth it. We weren't sure about doing the hike because the smoke from the wildfires was so thick lower down, but once we got into the higher elevations it wasn't as bad. The smoke still did hinder our views. If you want to go for the views, wait until the smoke clears. We decided to hike counter-clockwise due to the trail description in our hike book. It was a beautiful hike up to the pass. Lots of wildflowers and changing terrain. Going up this side is a little less steep. You hike 2000 feet of elevation in 4 miles as opposed to 2000 in 3 miles coming up the other way. We had lunch at an overlook on the trail halfway between Heather Pass and Maple Pass. Then we had another steep incline to get up to Maple Pass. Once up there, we got views of Corteo Peak and the surrounding close in peaks, but couldn't see much past the valley. The hike down was pretty steep. If it had been in the 90's like last week, we would have been pretty miserable on the exposed hillsides. We made it back to the car about 2 pm and headed back to Seattle with the agreement that we would definitely do this hike again when we can see the views. I'm sure they are magnificent. 

End of the trip

View from the trail down

Top of Maple Pass

View of the trail going down

See how smokey it is?

What a lunch spot!

Wildflower field

Mark on trail