So after cutting the Sol Duc loop short by a day, we made our way leisurely from Port Angles to the Cascades. We stopped in quaint village of Sequim (pronounced Skwimm), known for its massive lilac fields, and took a ferry from Kingston to Lynwood to spend another night in north Seattle. We stopped by an REI to resupply, where the were unfortunately sold out of the good insect repellant (hint: foreshadowing). The next day we drove a couple hours out to the Phelps Creek Trailhead, up a forest road from Cole’s Corner, WA. We decided to leave the rental vehicle before the road got really gnarly, but thanks to some trail magic, we got a lift the last mile to the trail.

The day was warm, the trail clear, and the insects prevalent! We made perhaps our largest tactical error since running out of food on our first backpacking trip. We got some half-assed, non-deet, non-picardin bug spray, and boy was that a mistake. Apparently we hit the two weeks a year the mosquitos really hatch out, and were also hit with a devastating amount of biting flies. We were pretty much getting bit anytime we weren’t moving. This led to us moving through the planned loop a lot faster than we had planned—in 4 days instead of six! A major bummer, but we can laugh about it now and remember to bring the good bug spray.

After meandering along Phelps Creek, we camped at the foot of Spider Meadow, ringed by an amphitheater of peaks. It was an amazing campsite!

At least the fire restrictions weren’t in effect yet. The smoke kept the bugs at bay…at little.

And we were treated to a beautiful sunrise

In the morning, a bunch a marmots were hanging out and chittering at one another on a big rock near our tent. Since neither of us could think of the collective noun for marmots, Sarah decided it should be a “Swap Meet” of marmots, because of the way they were all bickering at one another. Researching later, it appears that there is no agreed-upon collective noun, so we are going to go with that. Feel free to help expand its use.

The next day had us doing a grueling climb up and over Spider Glacier and Spider Gap, down to Lyman Lake, and then up toward Cloudy Pass. On the NatGeo topo, the trail doesn’t go over Spider Gap, but thanks to the good folks at the Washington Trails Association, we knew you could walk up the glacier and over the pass. Sarah of course cruised right up the glacier while I dragged ass, but I made it. It was truly stunning, even though some fires in the state made things rather hazy. Oh, and there were more bugs. Have I mentioned the bugs?

Looking back down from the foot of the glacier at Spider Meadow

We climbed up the glacier up and to the right toward the pass

Looking down toward Lyman Lake on the other side of the pass

We would have loved to have hung out at the lake, but the skeeters and flies had other plans. We pressed on up almost to Cloudy Pass, and found a meadow to camp in. Again, a fire was needed to keep the bugs at bay.

The next day we met up briefly with the PCT, then turned down Buck Creek Trail. This was the day we’d get to see the namesake of the whole wilderness area, Glacier Peak. It’s one of the tallest peaks in the Cascades, and true to its name, is flanked on all sides with them. We set up camp near Flower Dome, with a great view of it.

The next morning, we joined the PCT at Suiattle Pass, and caught our first views of Glacier Peak

By the 4th day, the bugs had eaten us up pretty good, and we decided to push back to the trailhead, instead of lingering around the wilderness area another day or two. It was mostly downhill, and Sarah set a cracking pace back to the trailhead.

One of the most memorable parts of the hike, and one of my biggest failures as a photographer, happened about an hour out from the trailhead. We inadvertently startled a black bear and her two cubs, about 100 feet to our left, and momma bear immediately sent her cubs up a tree, while she stayed down and eyeballed us keenly. We stayed still, except for me fumbling to get my camera out and off manual focus (I had been trying to get a photo of a spider web earlier). By the time I remembered I had put it on manual focus, momma was recalling her cubs dirtside and escorting them away from us.

We ended the trip with a dusty ride out to Cole’s Corner for milkshakes, then a motel room in the bizarre town of Leavenworth, WA, scratching the whole way. Despite the bugs and the haze, we look back on it fondly, but we double check that we have the deet on every hike.

Glacier Peak Wilderness

The Amazing Cascades...And Bugs