Maple Pass Loop: Popular and Family Friendly

Lake Ann

Most of the hikes I have written about this summer have not been exactly family friendly.  Vesper Peak, Gothic Basin, and Hidden Lake Lookout are all wonderful and challenging hikes, but unless you are the Swiss Family Robinson, you probably don't want to try to navigate the rough trails and scrambles with small children.  Our hike on Thursday would have a much better choice for family fun.  My friend and hiking machine, Ernie, and I hiked to Maple Pass, via Heather Pass on a trail that definitely fits the criteria of family friendly.  The trail is good without excessive rocks, roots, or washouts.  The distance is reasonable (under 8 miles) and climb not overly strenuous (less than 2400 feet) to make it accessible for anyone moderately fit from ages  8 to active Seniors.   On our way,  we saw a great mix of folks including several families and a significant international contingency.   The Maple Pass loop has much to offer hikers of any age, abundant wildlife, lakes and streams, and an amazing view of snowy mountains. 

One caveat to consider with this hike is the long drive to the trailhead.  Nestled in the heart of the North Cascades National Park,  Rainy Pass is a long way from Seattle.  50 miles past Marblemount on Highway 20 means an early start from the Puget Sound region.  Lucky for parents of today, on-board DVD players, handheld games, and headphones provide entertainment enough to stymie the frequent "are-we-there-yets" from the backseats.  

Through the alder

The distant trailhead is right off the highway, making it easy to find and apparently very popular.  When we visited, the accommodations were clean and functional with vault toilets and a drinking fountain.  The WTA guide suggests hiking the loop counter-clockwise to help mitigate the trail's steepness somewhat.   We elected to follow their advice though I suppose if your knees work better going up, it might be better to follow the sundial up Maple Pass first.  On the busy day we hiked the trail, we met people going both ways.  One mom and her daughter told us it was shorter going up Maple Pass first, but then it appeared as if they were hiking the entire loop anyway.

When we arrived at the trailhead after 10 AM,  the rain and fog from the previous day had lifted, but the humidity was still noticeable.  Fortunately, the temperature was mild.  We had to laugh as we were trying to find the right starting point because we ran into a Park Service biologist and his friend armed with butterfly nets.  Bugs have been a recurring theme on this summers hikes.  From entomologists on Mt. Townsend to jungle attired hikers on Green Mountain, the summer of 2015 has been buggy.

Armed with their nets, Tanner and Michael were a couple of young scientists from Federal Way out to inventory the meadows that are currently being love death.  We encountered a number of closed-for-repair signs along the way.   Tanner ushered Ernie, me, and a 40-something couple onto the trail that would take us counter-clockwise first to Heather Pass then up to Maple Pass.  The husband was in orange which is good practice in August what with bear hunting season starting.  While the park is closed to hunting,  you can never be too careful. Hence, I decided against wearing the bear costume.  Dangerously, his wife's shirt matched the purple of the asters and fireweed she was constantly photographing, so she ran the risk of getting hauled in with one of Tanner's butterflies, or at the very least pollinated by a mountain bumblebee.

The trail starts out gently climbing through the forest of spruce and mountain hemlock.  With a starting elevation of  over 4600' it doesn't take long to move into the subalpine zone after crossing a grove of alder.   A clearly marked branch of the trail will lead you to Lake Ann.  Views of the lake are visible most of the day as you climb around it.  Along the trail, the kids will be delighted by the prevalence of squirrels and marmot even if a grizzly old backpacker might show some contempt for mountain rodents.  Ernie had spent the previous week out in the wilderness.  Between the squirrels thieving antics and the paranoid marmots constantly whistling piercing alerts, he had cloyed of their cuteness.

Below Heather Pass, we were treated to the rhythmic work of a Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus) just off the trail.  I wondered about the trailrunner we saw bombing by.  While I was in awe of his stamina, I think you miss a lot of  wonderful moments along the trail traveling that fast.   On the way down, a mother grouse kept a vigilant eye on us from the brush as her chicks gamboled about.  I doubt he noticed.  Sure, for the trailrunner, the endorphins no doubt rush in, but I think pausing and watching a woodpecker or even a ground squirrel is closer to why we wander in the woods.

Approaching Heather Pass, the work load increases a bit.  It plateaus briefly at the pass then starts up again as you ascend the ridge towards Maple Pass.  Well above the zone for maples, the name of the pass seems a bit inexplicable.  Below Heather Pass we passed a couple in their 60s.   "How was the view?" I asked.   The husband, a little bored perhaps, responded with, "Oh, you know, peaks and mountains with snow."  It might have been ironic understatement.   For the rest of us, the view was spectacular of distant ranges pushing against one another.   An elusive marmot clambered into the heather then whistle a nonstop alert like we had arrived there to barbecue her entire family.

The hardest work of the day is the series of switchbacks that carry you up from Heather to Maple Pass.  Fortunately, before your cardio actually redlines, you reach the high point of the hike at nearly 6700 feet.  Ernie and I passed 3/5th of a family on our way up.  The two boys, perhaps 10 and 12, had run ahead of their parents and sister.  As I approached the pass, I yelled to  Ernie, "Those are the two boys we couldn't catch on the way up."  They condescendingly smiled at us.   "Of course," I continued, "they didn't know to win they had to touch the sign."  As I touched the sign, I quipped, "Guess I win." I used to played this game with my own kids twenty years ago when they were little, but I don't think it translated well into Dutch.  Even though the boys were dressed in American mall decor, they were in fact from Holland.  The family had spent four weeks in the USA, mainly in Montana.  Mom told me after she caught up that she had interned in the US.  Great country etc, but everything is a competition.  Ah, yes, the American Rat race, or up here, squirrel race.

Peaks and Mountains with Snow

I was sorry I had inadvertently confirmed her bias about Americans, so I quickly changed the subject: "When my dad flew in the war, the scariest thing he said he did was to kick out food over Holland from a B-17."

                       Things improved rapidly after I volunteered this information.

"Your father or grandfather?"  asked the husband.  "No, my dad,"  I told him, "I'm the youngest son."
He seemed to now beam with admiration though I don't think I ever won his wife over.  She pointed to her husband,  "He tells the kids all of the time he wouldn't be here if not for the Americans."

"No, it's true, " the husband retorted, "My mother still wells up with tears talking about how the Americans saved her from starvation."  20,000 Dutch starved to death in the final  months of  the Nazi occupation of their country.

We were able to introduce ourselves and explain we were teachers enjoying the last weeks of summer vacation.  They had been visiting Bozeman, Montana, and working their way to Vancouver, B.C. to save money on a discount carrier, not KLM: "We are Dutch, you know."  Sadly, they were skipping Seattle on this trip.

Ernie and I moved off to eat our lunch as they started down the trail.  Among the best sandwiches in the world are peanut butter and jelly consumed at least 5,000 feet.  As we ate, a young man came by to scrambled the prominence above the pass.  Just as we were getting ready to leave, the orange and purple couple arrived.   They had passed Tanner and Michael unscathed, but the butterfly survey was paused for lunch.  I halfway considered hiking back towards them to find what the found, but we were a long way from Snohomish, and Ernie had a dinner party that evening.  In our own inventory, the squirrels and marmots vastly outnumbered the butterflies.  We saw only a solitary butterfly flutter by.

Grouse keeping watch over her chicks

The trail down from Maple Pass is steep.  I took out my trekking poles for the first time that day.  The trail up was so well-maintained, and the climb moderate, I didn't feel like I needed them.  Ernie argues that an over-reliance on trekking poles can adversely affects balance.  Be that as it may, going down from the pass was definitely steeper.  I became a double-fisted hiker.

Tracing the ridgeline, you get a perspective of the lake from high above the opposite shore.  Then, you descend through the heather and scrub pine to forest.  In the heather Ernie caught sight of a grouse with her brood.  Further down we crossed paths with a German family and then young college students from Bothell.  It seem like rush hour had hit the Maple Pass trail.  Folks of all shapes and sizes were storming up the trail.  I am pretty sure some Australians passed with a "Goodday, mate."

The last mile or so on the trail, you can see the road which diminishes the wilderness effect of the hike somewhat earning one half of a demerit even if the road is the beautiful North Cascades Highway.   Before you know it, the trail spills out onto an ADA asphalt nature path.  I looked a little silly with my trekking poles still in hand dodging a elderly woman using a walker.   Folks paused at the little signs placed along the path to read about the way a forest is made up of trees like mountain hemlock and Englemann spruce.   Staying left on the nature trail, we eventually ended up in the parking lot and found the car.  Even though the hike wasn't especially arduous, it was nice to have dry clothes to change into for the long drive home.

Trail Down from Maple Pass

Links:
http://www.recreation.gov/permits/Enchantment_Permit_Area/r/wildernessAreaDetails.do?page=detail&contractCode=NRSO&parkId=72280