Mesahchie Pass - Aug. 5-6, 2022
On a hot day in early August I convinced my friend Holly to check out a place in the North Cascades with me which I had seen on a list of scenic cross country hikes. I knew it would be a bit of a slog – a bushwhack plus scramble – but given the relatively short distance, I felt it would be okay and certainly within our skill levels. Well, Holly called me a demon for dragging her on this hike when all was said and done, ha ha ha ha ha.
On a map, it appears to be 3.5 miles one way from Highway 20 to the pass. According to my GPS (which is usually pretty accurate), it’s more like 6 miles one way, 4 of which are a bushwhack. Most of this was due to meandering in the woods and not walking in a straight line, but given that my GPS gave very consistent readings on both the ascent and descent (plus we felt that the mileage matched our pace), I’m inclined to trust the 6-mile figure. We found the flagged Cabinet Creek trail on Highway 20 and followed it easily to the Cabinet Creek crossing. From here, the going was relatively easy in open forest. Near the confluence of the north and south forks of the creek, the brush intensified. We found a nice log to cross the north fork and then ascended along the west side of the south fork along brushy slopes until the grade leveled out in a forested meadow.
We went up steep forested slopes covered in pine needles and finally found ourselves at the unnamed swamp/lake below Ragged View. There was a lot of evidence of bear activity here – fresh tracks and scat – as well as a relentless swarm of mosquitoes that would not leave us alone. We began ascending steep forested slopes again until deciding we’d had enough and cut southeast to the edge of the forest. The going was easy here on stable talus slopes. We had read that it would be a good idea to trend right towards the pass sooner rather than later, but thick tree cover and brush greeted us that way. Straight ahead, the talus field ended at a couple of steep looking gullies which didn’t look to bad from our location. Unfortunately, the gullies consisted of downsloping ledges covered in kitty litter and a shooting gallery of larger loose rocks. The crappy stuff only lasted about 50’ but it was pretty gross. There were very few handholds, most of which were extremely loose. We made it through thankfully and found ourselves back on stable talus. We ended up having to hike above the pass to get around some steep heather slopes, and then dropped down to the pass below Ragged View.
There was some snow at this pass and we debated for a few moments whether to camp here or drop down to Mesahchie Pass. My dumb reasoning for why we should camp at Mesahchie was that the view was better for photos. The views from below Ragged View were breathtaking but the west end of Ragged Ridge was blocked by an unnamed ridge in front of it. Meanwhile, I felt like the meadows of Mesahchie Pass would offer amazing views of the whole ridge. Personally, I felt like Mesahchie Pass had better views but the mosquitoes were 10/10 horrific. We set up camp close to sunset and promptly fell asleep.
Holly slept in while I ran around at sunrise. It was spectacular. I found a nice set of braided streams with a nice view of peaks behind it, but only after sunrise had already happened. Part of me also wants to go back and catch sunrise from Ragged View itself. It took us about six hours from car to camp and we got an early start so that we could be back in Seattle at a decent hour. The only challenge was to find a better way down to the lake that didn’t involve the loose gullies. We mostly stayed in the trees. There were some cliff bands and we sometimes had to backtrack but otherwise the forested slopes were minimally brushy and we walked all the way back down to the lake.
In hindsight, this trip was truly not that bad. Because we had gone in expecting to do 3.5 miles and maybe 2 miles of bushwhacking, having that turn out to be 6 miles and 4 miles of bushwhacking was demoralizing. Had we gone in knowing the true distance, I think we’d have been in much better moods. I also think this area is worth an extra day just to relax and explore, but that’s just me. Overall, I’m happy I did this and knowing what I know now, I’d still do it again.
