Chikamin Peak - Aug. 6-7, 2019
This was a fun solo trip on the tail end of my trip to Washington this year. I had wanted to camp high up near a summit to catch sunrise and sunset but also didn’t want to commit to some of the more remote locations in the North Cascades. I settled on Chikamin Peak on the recommendation of several friends who mentioned that they did the Mineral Creek approach and it was easy. I’m being a little dramatic when I say this, but I legitimately felt like the brushy portion of the Mineral Creek trail was worse than the bushwhacking up Access Creek in the Pickets. The flies were relentless, it was sweltering (95 degrees in Roslyn that day), and the brush beat me up since I decided to wear shorts and a t-shirt.
After a few hours of hell, I took a long lunch break at Park Lakes before dropping into the Glacier Lake basin. I was very tempted to drop my overnight gear here and push on faster to the summit but persevered and slowly but surely made my way up past several tarns and a talus field. On the rocky col that separates Chikamin from the Four Brothers, I deliberated once more about where to camp. There were some very rocky bivy sites that didn’t look too comfortable since I had a tent, so I pushed on and found a great spot about 200 ft below the summit.
There was one low class 3-ish move to gain the summit block and then I had sweeping views of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness as the sun began to set. There were great views of Lemah to the north, Alta and Hibox to the south, and Huckleberry, Thompson, and Alaska to the west. Overnight, the wind picked up massively. I couldn’t really stake my tent down since the ground was a small layer of hard-packed dirt on top of granite slabs. I mostly used rocks and genuinely felt like if I got out of my tent for even a second, it would blow away. I remember downing some Benadryl to fall asleep while the wind whipped the tent walls into my face every few minutes.
My one regret is not waking up early to also catch a sunrise – the summit block was right in front of me! But I was wiped from the day before and just wanted to sleep in. The descent was easy and uneventful. I ran into two guys on the Mineral Creek trail who told me they were just going to Park Lakes. I kept my mouth shut but was thinking I would never subject myself to this miserable trail just for Park Lakes. I’m not even sure I’d do it again for Chikamin…I’d probably go in via the longer PCT route (side note: I read that the Mineral Creek trail was brushed out as of 2022 making it a pleasant hike now).
I hope to come back here soon to check out some of the other lakes and peaks in the area. You can’t really beat a slice of alpine paradise this close to the Seattle area!
