CutThroat Pass - PCT "Edward Abbey Backpack" & Overnight Campout
Join a spectacular early spring overnight campout at Cutthroat Creek or Lake campgound, and hike the Cutthroat Pass trail. This is a high elevation hike from east to west between Rainy and Washington Pass on the North Cascades Highway (SR 20). 12 miles one-way, elev. gain & loss 2200 ft. We will join the PCT and hike back to Rainy Pass and shuttle back to east to pick up a vehicle. This area borders the Pasayten Wilderness and wildlife sightings are likely. Spring flowers may just be starting to poke up - Avalanche lily, salmonberry and bird's beak lousewort. Snow may force a change to Colonial Creek campground and 4th of July Pass on the North Cascades highway. Participants must be in good physical condition. Hiking boots required, a water filter, quart water bottle, headlamp & camping gear. Pack a lunch both days plus an item to contribute for Saturday night's dinner, individual utensils & cup. Leader will bring pack stove, cook kit, First Aid kit, and main meal basics for Saturday dinner & Sunday breakfast. Trip fee of $7 per particpant will ocver trailhead pass, camping registration & food. Contact leader Terese to sign up and for more information, at 253-334-2157 or terrasolutions@hotmail.com. (MB) NOTE This trip is at the top of Rainy Pass, about a 3 hour drive from the Seattle area.
"One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast... a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive them." - Edward Abbey