The Washington State Hiking Podcast
Welcome to the The Washington State Hiking Podcast with your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming. Along with part time co-host and guidebook author Craig Romano, she provides practical and timely seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers of all skill and ability levels that is practical, accurate, fun and inclusive. We cover hikes near Seattle and Tacoma as well as hikes all across Washington from the rain forests of the Olympic Peninsula to the Shrub Steppe of Eastern Washington.
Jennie is a middle aged, plus sized, frequently solo slow hiker and a born and raised Washingtonian and has enjoyed Washington's trails her entire life. Craig is a trail runner and ultra marathoner who also loves the mellow walk close to home. Originally from New Hampshire, he has made his home in Washington for more than 30 years. He the author of more than 20 guidebooks covering trails across Washington State and beyond.
The Washington State Hiking Podcast
More than Mt Pilchuck - Alpine Hikes in Snohomish County for Solitude
Text us your questions to answer on a future episode
Jennie and Craig discuss some alternatives to the super popular and busy hikes on the Mountain Loop Highway and along Highway 2, including some that have recently restored road access.
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Jennie, welcome to the Washington State hiking podcast. I'm your host. Jennie Thwing Flaming,
Craig Romano:and I'm your co host. Craig Romano
Jennie Flaming:Craig and I are happy to have you here. We provide practical and timely, seasonal hiking advice for hikers, trail runners and potential hikers and trail runners of all skill and ability levels that is helpful, accurate, fun and inclusive. Hi everyone. Jennie, here. This is our second episode in our three part series about hikes in Snohomish County, and today we'll be talking about Alpine hikes in Snohomish County, and I wanted to take a moment to thank our sponsor for the month of April, Snohomish County tourism. You can learn more about them in the show notes and also in last week's episode. Enjoy the show. All right, Craig, well, today we're talking about awesome Alpine hikes in Snohomish County, because Snohomish County is sponsoring us this month, and so yeah, we do appreciate them. And last week we got to share our really wonderful episode that we did with Richard and Nick so because they're also podcast hosts. So listeners, if you missed last week's episode, definitely go back and listen to it. They had some great suggestions. So this week, and also next week, Craig and I are going to be diving a little bit deeper into some of the really great hikes in Snohomish County. And you know, probably, if you're listening, you know where this is, but we're talking today about the area, kind of between the Central and North Cascades around highway two, the mountain loop highway. That's where we're going to be talking about today. So Craig, what's really great about hiking in this area?
Craig Romano:Well, I was going to say, before I dive into there's two things. One, if you did miss the Snohomish County place makers podcast that Jennie and I were on, it's more than just talking about some of the great places in snow. We talk about the 10 essentials, um, trail etiquette. Really good stuff that's universal. I definitely tune it. Tune it in. It's a great, great episode. I think you'll enjoy it. We had a lot of fun recording it and and then one of the before I dive in, and Jennie was saying, this is the North Cascade, central cascades. And I have to tell you that there's really no such thing as the central cascades. I found this. It's a marketing ploy. When you I didn't make it up, but, but I embraced it with the books. So, so when we look at Oregon uses it, which is interesting. So it kind of screws people up when you think central cascades, three sisters, North Cascades, geographic, geologically, geographically, actually start at highway 90. Anything, anything north of I 90 is, is actually officially the North Cascades. But a lot of people don't think of the North Cascades. The only thing the North Cascades National Park, which is highway 20, State Route 20, which is a very small part of the North Cascade. The North Cascades goes right into British Columbia too. So, um, in my so what we're going to talk about, yes, if you have my books, my day hiking series. I'm we're talking about a lot of stuff in my central cascades, which I classify as the highway two corridor. Yeah, and then the North Cascades, which is the mount loop Highway, which is off, which is Snohomish County, and the highway 20 corridor. So I hope I'm not messing anybody up there. It's, it's, it's marketing, but, but yes, it's north of Highway 90. We're going to be on Highway two corridor, on this, on this, on this talk, and on the mountain loop highway. That's what we're looking at. You know, I live in Skagit, so I'm just north of that area. And so it's really, really easily accessible for me. I know Jennie, I have very opinions about I, you know, I like a lot of the access there. And depending when you go, it's not as crowded, certainly not as crowded as the I 90 access. So there are some mountain loop highway hikes that can be but I have some My My all time. You know, as a trail runner, I have two of my favorite loops that I do. I have 50k loops that I do. That's 31 miles, which also, if you don't do that distance. Those are, those are backpacking trips for those are backpacking trips. So I'll talk about those. And the other exciting thing, because one of my favorite, favorites of those is the North Fork of the skykomish area, which the road has been reopened there after about 11 or 12, years of being washed out. Used to be quite an adventure. So now you turn left at index, and you go up this beautiful paved road now for most of the way, and then it's then it's a decent gravel road for a few miles. This is where Blanca Lake is, which is a very, very popular hike. And if you've never done it, definitely do it. It's gorgeous. But drive a couple miles beyond Blanca Lake, less than two miles. And you're going to hit the end of the road. And there's four trails that that that start there, I'm sorry, three trails that start there. And I combine them all for various loops for for 1725, 30. So again, long day hikes, long trail runs, or great backpacks. It's one of my absolute favorite areas. You get up into blue lake. You can get that way. Dish pan gap, which is Katy ridge. It's an old burn zone from the 1920s 1930s so it's in the fall. It's absolutely gorgeous because of the blueberries and the mountain ash. It just sets everything red, orange. Lots of bears in the area, because where there's an old burn zone, there's huckleberries. Lots of huckleberries, yes, lots of views, lots of old growth. It's all in the in the wild, sky and the Henry M Jackson wilderness. And then you can connect to the Pacific Crest Trail. It's, again, it's one of my absolute favorite areas, and that whole stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, from dish pan gap to White Pass, red pass is also some of my favorite running terrain and some of the prettiest terrain on on PCT, it's all Meadows. You're just on this 5000 6000 foot Ridge, just weaving back and forth. The views are incredible. Uh, if you've never been there, I've got it covered in my backpacking book and in my day day hiking central cascades book. So that's one of my absolute favorite areas. But if you're looking for just shorter hikes too. In there, you can just go a few miles up, up on West Katy, and within about four miles, you already get straight views. And there's a new hike that was built by by WTA, uh, it's called Frog mountain. It's also in that area that's in my my day hiking, central cascades book, spectacular hikes, about an eight mile round trip. Um, the views, it's through that old burn zone. The views are just incredible. I've done it in October with the foliage. It's beautiful.
Jennie Flaming:There's lots of good heights, scorpions. So, so wait a second, Craig area too. Yeah, for frog mountain yeah.
Craig Romano:How do people get there? You could get there the way I just told you. Is it on the road? It's on the Beckler. It's on the connector from Okay, so you can get there from Beckler river. So you can go to Sky comish and turn left, or you can continue from from index and then climb. So it's right at, I can't remember the name of the Pat lone, Jack pass, or something like that. Either way, you can get there. And that's a great hike. It's, it's, it's, it's already becoming one of, one of the most popular hikes for good reason. It's beautiful, and it was built again to disperse use and get people, because a lot of people on the highway two corridor. They're, they're, they're heading down the south side of the corridor now and the alpine lakes wilderness. So these are, these are nice alternatives. There's a lot of good hikes. Scorpion Ridge, Scorpion mountains, another one, Johnson ridge. There are no scorpions in this in this area. It was named an old mine. Another great view. Lots of bears on this hike. I've always seen bears there. Another great, great day hike. You can do this wonderful car camping down below, dispersed camping. So this is a good area. There's more than just Blanca lake in this area there. There are some fantastic hikes and and the last time I was just there in August with one of my buddies, we did one of our 31 mile loops, and absolutely beautiful August day, and we encountered six people, six people, yeah, you know, in some amazing territory. And I think
Jennie Flaming:that's really important, Craig, because, of course, the same, roughly the same, area that we're talking about includes really, really busy and crowded hikes like Mount Pilchuck and Lake serene and Lake 22 and Heather lake. And so one of the things that Craig and I really wanted to do with this episode was share some places you other places you can go, because you probably don't need us to tell you about Mount Pilchuck or lake serene. So that was one of the reasons that we really wanted to go into some of these places, like you're talking about Craig exactly, much less busy,
Craig Romano:exactly. And I can't emphasize enough too my books. My books cover these areas I'm all about. Of course, I have mount Pilchuck in Lake 20, but in my day hiking Central, I have 136 hikes in that book. Many people have never, never heard of, never ventured to. And you'll be amazed how close, matter of fact, let's talk about some of so on the mountain loop Highway, which is the other popular corridor in Snohomish County, very, very close to Everett Lake, Stevens, Marysville. Yep, it very easy access. Half the road is paved in the part that's not it's usually in pretty decent shape there. There are a lot of very, very accessible hikes are very popular. But even close to that with Joe Biden's Road Fund, I can't remember the the great outdoor Yeah, the info, yeah, one that was just passed. And hopefully that money won't be taken away, yeah, from somebody grumpy in Washington, DC, but it actually helps reopen a lot of roads, yeah, in that area. So that's why we on
Jennie Flaming:trails. Me. Unsung hero of legislation. I mean, the amount of money that flowed to trail maintenance and road fixes in public lands, I mean, it's not enough, especially in our area, to deal with the demand plus all the storm damage, but I made a huge difference. So I'm with you, absolutely tragedy if all that money doesn't end up absolutely we're looking
Craig Romano:at entirely the opposite right now. The budget's being cut where, where we had previous administration was actually putting money into our recreation for many, many years you needed, you needed a four by four to get to them. So we've, it's just opened up a whole new area. So behind Lake 22 in Mount pillow Chuck is a whole new network, a whole Old network of trails on roads that have been restored that you can get the the sedan up there now. So Ashland lakes, that's a wonderful and Ashland lakes, talk about a great introduction hike. It's very, very couple miles to get in. You start up high. It's a perfect place to take newbies. You know, people are just exploring. It's actually on DNR land you're accessing. It's a, it's a natural resource conservation area. There are back country campsites there. Platform really, really nice. So you could set up camp in there. Just hike in a couple miles. Old growth forest. Pinnacle Lake is another one on the backside of Mount Pilchuck. Couple miles to get in in there, spectacular old growth forest, Boardman Lake, Evans, you got this, these, all these, these shorter hikes in this area that are great alternatives to Heather, Lake in Lake 22 and now you've got a decent road to get in there. So definitely take advantage of that. The
Jennie Flaming:road you're talking about is it the same road as the one that you take to mount Pilchuck and you just go further? No, no, no. Is it a different road? And if it's a different road, and you explain where it is, yeah, you get onto it from Highway two to get
Craig Romano:Do you want to go beyond the lake 22 Trailhead? And it is Forest Road 4020 it's about, it's about 11 miles past the verlot ranger station. So it's a force for service road that, for many, many years, was deeply, right? It deeply eroded. I mean, you would bottom out on it, and now it's been, it's been restored and groomed, and you get a sedan up there, and it's going to give you access to a whole network of lakes of short hikes, family friendly, and get you away from some of those crowded areas.
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Craig Romano:Oh, so much. I mean, again, it is one of my favorite areas, and especially where I live. I said it's very accessible for me. So again, on the mountain loop highway mount Dickerman is another very, very, extremely popular it's a wonderful hike. But I know Richard talked about this in our last podcast, but from the same trail head is Perry Creek, and Perry Creek, you're going to have a 10th of the people on that. And you can hike that through old growth and waterfall. There's waterfalls there. And then if, depending on your ability, you could scramble up the top of Mount forgotten. You can scramble up the top of Mount silquamish, or hike a couple miles on the ridge. Wonderful, wonderful. It. Another place I absolutely love too. It's semi popular is Monte Cristo. And Monte Cristo area is great, and you want to talk about a real ghost town. There's a lot of them on the west side, I mean, on the east side of the Cascades. But this one, you can take your mountain bike in on the old road. I used to be a railroad bed in there. It's a little rough, and leave your bike, your bike in there. And then there's, there's actually a campground in there too. You can camp. And then some great hikes that you can do in there. They're not easy, but if you just want to just an easier day hike to get and just going into the Monte Cristo site itself, Gothic basin, we talked about that old mining areas, alpine lakes, absolutely spectacular area. These are all a big bang for your for your hiking buck in here, and then the North Fork of the of the sock. So this is still off of the mountain loop highway. It's this one's easier to access from Darrington, coming from that side again, access to some of my favorite areas. That's talking about those 31 mile loops that I do, you can you can do the variations from here by going up to White Pass and along the Pacific Crest Trail and doing blue lake. Blue Lake is one of my absolute favorite places in the Cascades. I've camped there and I've gone in just for the day.
Jennie Flaming:Can we discuss Craig briefly, the multiple blue lakes in Washington. Clarify which one you're currently talking about.
Craig Romano:This blue lake is, is below Johnson peak. Which is you have a fire lookout, and you can get up there and stand on that thing, and you are in the center of the central North Cascades. You can see the views are amazing. So you can access this blue lake from the North Fork Sky, which I talked about earlier, or from the North Fork sock. There's a couple ways, and it makes a wonderful loop. This loop is in my backpacking book, a pilot Ridge is part of that. It's a grueling ridge with no water, but it's the views are spectacular on this, um, then the other, one of my all time favorite areas in Snohomish County in Washington, general, it's just north of Darrington, the Seattle, the suwannel River Valley. So you get up and through there, you're, you're actually in Skagit first, and it tips back into into Snohomish. But this is the access to image Lake, which is, which is one of the most spectacular hikes, not only here in Snohomish County, Washington, but I'll venture to say the country, it is an incredible place. It's another one. I've, I've backpacked in there. It's, it's a 34 mile, 32- 34 mile loop. And I've trail run in there. The first 10 miles along the river is very, very gentle. You only climb about 1000 feet. It's all old growth. You can, you can camp in there. And then there's designated campsites near the lake. There's a an active fire lookout still up there, and you're looking right out at Glacier peak. It is. The view is incredible. If you're camped out there, you get up at sunrise, before sunrise, you get to the lake, and you're going to see one of the most spectacular reflections. It is iconic. So if you've never done image lake. I know people I've been asking were like, if I was going to move back east and I can only do one more hike in Washington, what would it be? And it's that one of the High Divide in the Olympic Peninsula, two of my favorite hikes. And I never get tired. If I've done them as runs, I've done them as multi day trips, they're just they're incredible. So I hope I've whetted your appetite for a little bit of snow. And the other thing too, about glacier peak, which is interesting, I think Richard talked about this little too. It's the fourth highest, fourth highest mountain in Washington, highest summit in Snohomish County. And it is the volcano that nobody knows about. Yes, I've been on ferry so many times people are looking out at like, what, what is, what is that mountain there? What is that big peak? And granted, it's got a boring name glacier. We probably should use the indigenous name, or at least some better name than glacier, but it is the wildest of all our volcanos, because there's no national park. It's all wilderness. There's no roads nearby. It's not a day trip. I mean, unless you're an ultra runner, it's not a day trip to get there, so it is our wildest and you can get a much better wilderness experience there than at Mount. Rainier. Certainly, yeah, absolutely
Jennie Flaming:love it. Okay, Craig, this has been awesome, and before we wrap up, I'm gonna put you on the spot with a question I will also ask, I know you're gonna hate me for this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Um, so when I think about the really, really popular Alpine hikes in this area, I think of Lake 22 Heather, Lake Mount Pilchuck and Lake serene. Those are the four that are like, Whoa, yeah. Which one of those four do you think is the best?
Craig Romano:Lake 22 me too. And I'm not saying that because I knew that that was your answer. You
Jennie Flaming:know, you did. Did I tell you that before? Oh, yeah, I did tell you that. Yeah, yeah. Lake 22
Craig Romano:really is a beautiful hike. It. Again, getting back to we were talking about that federal money that came in. Some of the federal money came in to actually rehabilitate that trail, yeah, because it's such a popular trail, it's built, it's built to actually take it now. Yeah. So the thing is, I love lake 22 later in the season, I've actually been in Lake 22 when I've been here by myself, it is possible in late October, towards the end of the day. You know, don't go on a July weekend,
Jennie Flaming:that's the thing. But and if you do, do it in the evening,
Craig Romano:if you Yeah, do or very early in the morning. And also be aware too, because the parking lot is going to fill up. And do not park illegally on the road, you will get towed, or
Jennie Flaming:that's the bottom line about many hikes in Washington, and especially this year, when our public lands are really under stress, not parking illegally. Please, please, please, don't do that. I feel like we're gonna mention this over and over and over. Have a backup plan if you're going on a really popular hike like this, one of the many ones Craig has just recommended, yeah, and I know
Craig Romano:we've also talked about this with Richard last week, is that there's going to be a lot of cuts to the federal government and such, and we need, we really Need to up our game or be a good steward. So if the rest area is closed, don't do something disgusting by the trailhead. Pack your garbage. These are things we should be doing because it's we don't want to make a bad situation worse, and we have to bring the best of us to try to turn this, this mess around. So so be aware. I want everyone to be good stewards out there. No, yes,
Jennie Flaming:I agree. All right. Well, we'll see you next week, when we'll talk about some of the more lowland hikes in Snohomish County that we love. Bye for now, right?
Craig Romano:Goodbye. Happy hiking. You.
