July 8th Harts Pass to Near Methow Pass

Immediately after Harts Pass we entered the strange world of a burnt forest. Bleached, white trunks with fire-blackened bark like rotting sinews still attached to bone, yet at ground level bright green grasses and newly sprouted seedlings a mere six inches high. An eerie landscape with life springing out of death. Then, as we climbed around the sides of Tatie Peak, more snow and more work with the ice axe. Really tiring and slow going. When we arrived at the snow covered ridge above Glacier Pass some trail below was visible, but a route down was not. So, Plunging through the brush and saplings, grabbing branches to keep from sliding or falling, we made it down to the switchbacks leading to Glacier Pass. Much to our dismay, although much lower in elevation,once we reached the trees there was a whole lot of unmelted snow. Not much sunlight filtering through. The trail was easy enough to follow, but up and over and down and around mounds and heaps of snow for a couple of miles. Finally, moving ever lower, the old growth forest emerged, dark with a smell of decay. Old trees that had fallen on the forest floor now so transformed as to be nothing but an intricately connected jigsaw of spongy cork covered with moss and ferns. Sounds of slow-trickling streams with white beds of quartz grains snaking their way between the trunks of trees still standing. A few miles down and yet another transition along a steep mountain creek where beavers had created some large, clear ponds with their dam building. With chest-high grasses and succulents growing together across the trail, I placed my trekking pole in front of me parting the greenery like Moses parting the Red Sea. Lovely smells of flowers and pollen, small larch and some alderberry made it a marvellous walk. Unfortunately, good things don't last and as the trail ascended again to top Methow Pass, it was the same snow slog through the trees. That was tough toward the end of the day. We found a nice campsite in a basin just below Granite Pass. Flat ground, good water and the same cosmic beauty of the night sky.

Burnt Forest

The Slopes of Tatie Peak

Towards Glacier Pass

20 Miles