Vesper Peak: A Little Torture for Everyone

The hike and scramble up 6200' Vesper Peak has something for everyone to hate.  Like some medieval morality play that promises paradise after long suffering, ultimately, Vesper delivers heavenly views, but first you must be challenged on one of the worse trails along the Mountain Loop Hwy.  The mileage count to the top is under five miles, but it will feel much further because of adverse trail conditions.  Of course, for some, the travails of the trek will only heightens their sense of accomplishment once on top.  The challenges also provides a kind of living history experience as you clamber up the route just like the prospectors of old.

On a cool and overcast morning earlier in the week, my hiking buddy, Ernie, and I decided a penitential hike was in order.  After initially driving past the turn off for the FR 4065 (Sunrise Mine Road), we made it to the trailhead a little past 9 AM.  Note: if you get to Barlow Pass you've gone too far!

The trail begins nicely enough for 1/4 mile then the soft forest path becomes a root-tangled mess with broken-bridge creek crossings.  According to Harvey & Ira*, you will cross four streams in the first couple of miles.  In this dry summer of 2015, one was merely a dry culvert.  The others were easily forded by remnants of bridge boards, logs, and even a kind of root-bridge, courtesy of the local Ents.  I imagine in a wetter year, with more melt water, the creeks might pose a greater challenge.

After you emerge from the woods, you climb through a steep, humid meadow of ferns and elderberry.  We were lucky to be hiking on such a mild morning.  Even though the jungle humidity of this section can be an ideal milieu for deer flies and mosquitoes, we weren't bothered at all. Personally, since I hate high humidity, and found this micro-climate the least pleasant part of the journey.  I definitely needed to re-hydrate along the way.

For hikers with knee or ankle problems, the next section of the trail is trouble as it picks its way through a long avalanche field of boulders. Here, you need to vigilantly look for the next cairn while watching your step to prevent twisting a knee or barking a shin.

It was among the boulders that we ran into a hiker named Brad.  He was working his way back down through the blast zone to confer with his wife.  Apparently, pangs of guilt made him question his decision to go on without her. We had passed her in the woods where she told us this was her first real hike since recovering from an ankle break.  Ernie and I agreed this was not the trail to test freshly mended bone.  While we would eventually met the rest of Brad's party at the summit, it was the last we saw of the couple that day.  Undoubtedly, his marriage was strengthened by his decision to give up on bagging the peak.

After climbing through the boulder field, the trail turns to the northwest towards Headlee Pass.  Really, the pass is a clef in the wall almost invisible until you start up it.  The first 100 yards is loose dirt and gravel.  Stay left and you might find it easier to make it to the switchbacks that wend steeply up the grade to the pass (4720'--though the old sign says 4600').  It was on this part of the trail I found a Swiss watch in the dirt.  I surmised the owner was pushing hard on the trekking pole on the arduous climb when the wrist band burst.  Anyway, any excuse to pause on that part of the trail was alright with me.  The watch had taken a lickin' and kept on tickin', a lesson for all of us on the Vesper Peak trail.  Eventually, we reached the pass. From the trailhead,  we had ascended 2370'.

After Headlee, the trail traverses through a great talus slide to more boulders that mark Vesper Creek.  Pause for a moment to admire the spires of Sperry Mountain above you.  They look like castle turrets.  Downhill, below the talus, a green valley opens up like a hidden Shangri-la.

At the creek, more cairns need to be followed. If you stay on the right side of the stream, you'll end up at Vesper Lake, an over-sized tarn of glacial melt water devoid of vegetation.

Ernie navigates the talus slope

Vesper Lake

For those who demand even more punishment, crossing the creek will lead you to the summit.

Briefly, the trail is visible then is obscured by the heath.   We wandered after an errant cairn and momentarily lost the way, but regained the trail quickly.  It stays left of the ridge line above the lake, and climbs sharply through the heather for perhaps a quarter mile.  Here we interrupted a marmot having an early lunch. 

Once through the heath and stunted spruce, you'll step out to an open granite slope below the summit block.  The final challenge of hopping boulders and scrambling up a tilted table top of granite begins. Cairns lead the way up, and we could see Brad's party already on top.  After stashing our trekking poles we began the scramble.  For the most part, the going was steep but rarely required hands.  

Brad's Friends waiting for him on top of mountain.

About half way through this portion, we were overtaken by a young man named Dylan who seemed to ascend nonchalantly past us. After maybe twenty minutes of heart pounding work, we made it to the summit where we found Brad's friends just finishing their lunch.  The watch was reunited with one of the party, a guy named Pete, who was disappointed we didn't recover the pin that holds the broken band to the watch.  Ernie and I caught our breath and drank in the views.

Vesper Peak

Copper Lake

The Glacier

Dylan, a 27 year old who had just finished a Masters in Microbiology, had been there maybe five minutes in advance of us.   We all ate our sandwiches together and had a great conversation about education, archaea, and switchgrass as a source for bio-fuel.  For me, the people I meet along the trail are often times as interesting as the scenery.  

The overcast was breaking up a bit and some blue sky was peaking through.  It wasn't a perfect vista, but it was rewarding.  The Vesper Glacier, Copper Lake, and Morning Star were all visible.  Glacier Peak and the other great monarchs of the Cascades were still veiled.   As we got ready to head down, Ernie remarked it would be nice to come back on a clear day.

We follow Dylan off the summit.

The trail out, given its various challenges, is nearly as difficult as coming up.  Certainly, the pressure on the knees is more acute.  For a short while, we kept up with Dylan, but it didn't take long for our creaking joints to slow us down.  Plus, I lost my hat, and had to re-climb a stretch of a few hundred yards to reclaim it.  When I got back down to Ernie, the kid was long gone.

It probably took us over two hours to pick our way back to traihead.  Gravity worked with our cardio but against our menisci.  Ernie took a couple of Advil along the way down, and we stopped at a stream and drank some cool, purified water which made the tired journey out a little more bearable.  All in all, Vesper Peak is a very challenging day hike, but worthwhile.

Here's the WTA Vesper Lake link for directions: 

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/headlee-pass-and-vesper-lake

Tip on the directions:

If you plan on hiking Vesper Lake or the peak, reset your car odometer at Granite Falls.  Look earnestly for the road to the trailhead after 28 miles.  The sign for the turn off is obscured by brush and easy to miss coming from the west.   

The classic guide book:  

*Spring, Ira and Manning, Harvey.  100 Hikes in Washington's Glacier Peak Region,                                         Seattle: The Mountaineers, 2003.