Buckskin Ridge/Cascade Crest Trail
Day 1: Slate Pass to Silver Lake
Day 2: Silver Lake to Buckskin Lake
Day 3: Buckskin Lake Wild Goose Chase
Day 4: Buckskin Lake to Coney Basin
Day 5: Coney Basin to Goat Lake
Day 6: Goat Lake to Trailhead
Beginning Descent from Top of Buckskin Ridge
A six day trip in the Pasayten Wilderness covering a little over 47 miles and with about 16000 feet of elevation gain and loss, including a wild goose chase at Buckskin Lake, a river that "flowed the wrong way", and a couple of 13 mile Death Marches (for me anyway).
Troop 24 Adults: "Cascade" Bill Mooseker, Greg Phillips
Troop 24 Scouts: Danny Stallings, Peter Goodwin, Shelby Stong, Roger Shively
Troop 24 "The High Adventure Troop" Backpacking Trip
-Cascade Bill Mooseker
Date(s): August 7-12, 2000. Album by Cascade Bill. Photos by Cascade Bill. 1 - 70 of 70 Total. 1528 Visits.
Hello Fellow Scouts ! Looks like a great trip ! I love that part of Washington ! I'm a Asst. Scoutmaster with Troop 714 based at St. Stephen The Martyr Church in Renton, WA. Stumbled on your site from a Google search !
Keep up the good work ! MC - Mark Cook, Wed, 30 Mar 2005 11:58AM
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enlarge 86KB, 800x518 2 00-341-013 Shelby, Peter, Roger, Greg, and Danny at Slate pass (about 100 yds from trailhead) The Buckskin Ridge Trail takes off just a couple of switchbacks below the highest elevation that you can drive to in the state of Washington - the Slate Peak Lookout on peak in background.
enlarge 107KB, 800x561 3 00-341-014 Along Buckskin Ridge near Slate Pass.
enlarge 96KB, 800x554 4 00-341-015 Looking south - Robinson Pass at center
enlarge 70KB, 552x800 5 00-341-016 Greg fishing at Silver Lake - lots of small brookies.
enlarge 135KB, 800x523 6 00-341-018 Danny & Peter catchin a few rays in the late afternoon sun.
enlarge 91KB, 800x522 7 00-341-017 Shallow Silver Lake
enlarge 151KB, 800x518 8 00-341-019 Day 2 - Guys at Silver Pass
enlarge 119KB, 800x520 9 00-341-020 Valley on west side of Buckskin Ridge down from Silver Pass
enlarge 117KB, 522x800 10 00-341-021 Climbing up very steep stril on west side of Buckskin Ridge.
enlarge 93KB, 800x520 11 00-341-022 View from climb up Buckskin Ridge
enlarge 129KB, 800x519 13 00-341-024 Taking a break on climb up Buckskin Ridge.
enlarge 117KB, 800x522 14 00-341-025 Climbing over ridge crest down the eastern side of Buckskin Ridge.
enlarge 130KB, 800x600 15 00-341-025a Enlarged view of previous photo
enlarge 101KB, 527x800 16 00-341-026 Trail descends to this saddle and then switchbacks to the right down to a basin below.
enlarge 109KB, 800x521 17 00-341-027 Greg Phillips descending along ridge before dropping down switchbacks on east side of Buckskin Ridge.
enlarge 113KB, 800x520 18 00-341-028 Taking a break in the Meadowed Basin (far) below the ridge crest.
enlarge 118KB, 800x527 19 00-341-029 Day 3: Bill, Peter, Roger, Danny & Shelby - Leaving Buckskin Lake
enlarge 92KB, 800x520 20 00-341-030 Buckskin Lake - We would follow old abandoned trail on wild goose chase over pass above lake.
enlarge 86KB, 800x532 21 00-341-031 The Green Trails map shows the trail continuing along the ridge north of Buckskin Lake. But after a while our trail peters out - Where is the Trail?
enlarge 114KB, 800x527 22 00-341-032 Nothing but Meadows - no trail
enlarge 91KB, 800x525 23 00-341-033 Finally after heading back towards Buckskin Lake we find a faint trail, Lets see where it goes.
enlarge 105KB, 800x600 24 00-341-033a Heading along the trail above Buckskin Lake.
enlarge 91KB, 800x523 25 00-341-034 View of Buckskin Lake from the vague trail.
enlarge 80KB, 800x525 26 00-341-035 View from the ridge above Buckskin Lake.
enlarge 108KB, 800x522 27 00-341-036 Greg, Danny, and Roger following vague tread down opposite side of ridge (trail soon disappears and way is blocked by cliffs making a return to Buckskin Lake necessary.)
enlarge 134KB, 800x599 28 00-341-036a Enlarged view of previous photo
enlarge 67KB, 800x519 29 00-342-001 After our wild goose chase on an old abandoned sheep trail to nowhere we enjoy Moonlight and Campfire at Buckskin Lake - for 2nd night.
enlarge 132KB, 800x522 30 00-342-002 Bridge over river that runs the wrong way (due to a confusing Green Trails map we hiked a ways up the Point Defiance trail) - We found the correct trail out of Buckskin Lake and had to climb over hundreds of fallen logs that were over the unmaintained trail.
enlarge 141KB, 800x600 31 00-342-002a Enlarged view of previous photo - Greg, Danny, Peter, Shelby, and Roger.
enlarge 119KB, 800x521 32 00-342-005 Danny & Peter taking a dip in river. Brrrrr! That's cold!
enlarge 113KB, 800x531 33 00-342-004 Shelby watches Danny and Peter taking a dip in the stream.
enlarge 95KB, 800x526 34 00-342-006 Bill - about half way up Rock Creek - There's a campsite around here somewhere (a good half hour or so!) Climbing up Rock Creek, we met a Forest Service trail crew that had just finished clearing out an avalanche jungle of tumbled trees. There was one girl packing a 2-man saw that looked like she would win an arm wrestling match with any of us!
enlarge 122KB, 800x600 35 00-342-006a Enlarged view of previous photo - Unfortunately, we were never able to find "Brown Bear Camp" that was called out on the topo map, so we had to continue on to Coney Basin below Woody Pass. It was a really long day.
enlarge 73KB, 800x524 36 00-342-008 View of Rock Pass from our camp at Coney Basin.
enlarge 112KB, 800x521 37 00-342-009 Taking a breac at junction of Cascade Crest Trail/ Rock Cr. Trail in meadow below Woody Pass - Pete, Shelby, Roger, Danny, and Greg.
enlarge 87KB, 526x800 38 00-342-010 Descending switchbacks from Woody Pass onwards to Rock Pass.
enlarge 95KB, 800x522 39 00-342-011 Climbing up to Rock Pass - Looking north to Woody Pass.
enlarge 101KB, 800x523 40 00-342-012 Break at Rock Pass.
enlarge 117KB, 800x524 41 00-342-013 Break at Rock Pass - Pete, Shelby, Roger, Bill, and Danny.
enlarge 103KB, 800x600 42 00-342-013a Danny
enlarge 66KB, 800x528 43 00-342-014 Along Crest Trail south of Rock Pass.
enlarge 107KB, 800x536 44 00-342-015 Leaving Cascade crest Trail to head to Goat Lake.
enlarge 108KB, 550x800 45 00-342-016 Sunset at Goat Lake - We had a little bit of contention at our camp when Greg tore a page out of Peter's Fantasy novel and put it in the campfire. I later on read that same book and it turned out that that page was really crucial to the story!
enlarge 82KB, 800x522 46 00-342-017 Day 6 : Heading from Goat Lake back to Crest Trail. Rock Pass is to right of Peak.
enlarge 95KB, 800x527 47 00-342-018 We Were Lost! - Bill, Shelby, Roger, Peter, & Danny - They'll never let me forget the "River that runs the wrong way"!
enlarge 129KB, 686x800 48 00-342-018b Peter & Danny
enlarge 94KB, 545x800 49 00-342-018a Shelby & Roger
enlarge 76KB, 800x530 50 00-342-019 View along Crest Trail before descending to Holman Pass. Along this stretch, we met a "Thru-Hiker" that had done the entire trail from Mexico to Canada and was on the return trip. Hope he made it before the snows fell.
enlarge 93KB, 800x526 57 00-342-025 Looking back to Windy Pass.
enlarge 89KB, 800x523 58 00-342-026 Ridge hugging Crest Trail a couple of miles south of Windy Pass
enlarge 86KB, 800x533 59 00-342-027 Basin along Crest Trail.
enlarge 64KB, 800x535 60 00-342-028 Beautiful section of trail south of Windy Pass - we had planned on camping at the pass but it was mediocre at best so we decided to push on out to the trailhead.
