24 August 2019 Maple Pass

We woke this morning to another foggy, dripping morning. But the forcast looked like it would burn off so we headed for the Maple Loop Pass trailhead on the eastern side of the park. It was about a two hour drive to the trailhead on state highway 20. We arrived a little after 9am and were able to still find a parking spot. The trail starts off in National Forest land and then runs along the edge of the National Park. This is obviously a very popular hike. Having researched the hike on Alltrails, we decided to take the loop counterclockwise. It offered a more gradual climb over a longer distance. It was 4.6 miles and over 2200 foot elevation change to the top of the pass. It took us almost four hours to reach the top

Lake Ann

Entering the NP

Start of the trail down

Cascade Range

South Cascade Range

Western Cascade Range

Panoramic at top of pass

and definitely tested our muscles and lungs. The last half mile was very steep. The views from the trail over the Cascade Range and Lake Ann on the way up were awesome! Leslie spotted some mountain goats up on a distant cliff face. We also saw some Picas along the trail. The trail down from the top was the same 2200 feet but in only 3.2 miles and was very steep and rocky. At one point, Leslie was trying to descend a particularly steep and rocky section when this guy going up hill with a dog, just blasted by forcing her to take a bad step down and popped her bad knee out. They didn’t even stop to say they were sorry! People!!!!

The trip down from there was slow as we tried to make sure Leslie’s knee did not pop out again. But there were beautiful views down into Rainey Lake. Once we finally made it down, there were two groups of folks offering free meals in the parking lot. A group of hikers (from West Virginia) and a Mormon Church organization. So we stopped, had a couple hot dogs, some cookies, and talked with folks. It was a great way to end a beautiful but tough hike (7.8 miles, 2218 feet of elevation, 2503 calories burned). The drive back seemed to take forever, but we made it back to the Wanderer before Etta had an accident. Being too tired to cook, we went back to the Birdview Brewery for a couple pints and burgers.