Summary
Saturday hike at Huckleberry Mountain in the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the North Cascades. This is a non-technical hike that is moderate in difficulty, but is more strenuous once you get into the snow. I did not utilize snowshoes, but did make use of microspikes. I did not make it up to the actual Huckleberry Mountain peak, but could see it from where I turned around. There is quite a bit of elevation gain along the route. Even though the trail is mostly in the forest, there are several southern facing views along the entire route. Once you get to the top areas, the views open up significantly. The weather was great the entire day with mostly clear skies and decently warm temperatures the entire way. There were only 2 other hikers on the trail during the whole outing. The hike took about 7.5 hrs.
This hike was definitely a great hike for solitude. Although I didn’t get to Huckleberry Mountain proper, I was able to get great panoramic views looking northeast to southwest, including Huckleberry Mountain. This would be another great place to overnight for a on a clear starry night sky and a sunrise.
(All pictures are clickable for larger views.)
Route Overview
Expand for more details
General Route Overview Elevation Profile
In the above general route outline, the yellow was roughly our route. The trail is clearly defined for the majority of the way. The snow line started around 3700ft. Once in the snow, we followed a general set of tracks which generally meshed with the normal trail route.
During this outing, I experimented with the Gaia app again to help with outlining the general route depicted above.
Washington Trail Association Links:
- Huckleberry Mountain
Overall Difficulty:
Moderate-Strenuous. Solid elevation gain. Snow began around 4600 ft. Dependent on the snow-pack and your conditioning with snowshoeing.
Gear Load-out:
Expand for more details
- Gregory Zulu 40L [Amazon Link]
- Snowshoes [Amazon Link]
- Microspikes [Amazon Link]
- 3L Hydration Reservoir [Amazon Link]
- First Aid Kit
- Glacier Glasses [Amazon Link]
- Light weatherproof jacket
- Light Down Jacket [Amazon Link]
- Beanie
- Neck gaitor
- Layered glove system [read more]
- Compass
- Map
- Over-boots (for my approach/hiking shoes) [Amazon Link]
- 1x pair extra socks (Darn Tough) [Amazon Link]
- Food
Getting to the Trailhead:
Expand for more details
From the State Route 530/Mountain Loop Highway intersection in Darrington, WA, drive north along SR-530 for ~7.4 miles. After you cross the bridge over the Sauk River, the turn will be in the upcoming turn. Turn right onto Suiattle River Road/NF-26. Continue for ~14.3miles. Some parts of the road are wide enough for one vehicle but there are turnoffs.
The parking area at the trailhead is decent. There is likely enough room for only 10-15 vehicles depending on how people park. There is no bathroom structure at the parking area.
Google Maps Directions:
From the State Route 530/Mountain Loop Highway intersection in Darrington, WA to the Huckleberry Mountain Trailhead (click here)
Vehicle Clearance:
NF-26 is paved for the first 10 miles. There are a couple of bad patches along the paved road, but nothing major. At mile marker 10, the road becomes dirt and gravel with major pot holes over the next 4.3miles to the trailhead. Many of potholes are wider than my F-150 truck and some are 4-6in deep. I would suggest a high clearance vehicle, but I have seen sedans on the road too.
Permits:
National Parks/Forest or the Northwest National Forest Passes are valid.
Day Trip:
Pack Weight Start: Did Not Measure, est 20lbs.
Huckleberry Mountain Trailhead to Campsite. 2hr 22min
Starting about 12:00PM, there was only one other vehicle in the parking area. The starting temperature was in the mid-70s in the parking area and mostly clear skies.
The trail starts out pretty gentle, but is evident that it is not well traveled due to vegetation along the trail.
Shoulder Incident
About 40min into the hike, while I was crossing through one of the streams, I slipped as the moss-covered rock I was on rolled, causing me to re-dislocate my shoulder trying to catch myself. This event was quite the bummer. After putting it back in and catching my breathe, I decided to continue on. I’ll mention that there wasn’t much that could be done and it seemed to go back into the right place. This incident ate about 20 mintues.
The rest of the hike served as a mental endurance hike, though I knew I could turn around at any point if things didn’t feel right. The point of this was this was a prior injury that could’ve happened just as easily near the turnaround point as where it did occur and I would have had to get myself back to the vehicle regardless. Each person should make judgement calls suited for themselves, while also considering the danger of others should an incident escalate. Sometimes grabbing that straw and sucking it up and walking it off is the way to go, while other situations might cause you to return to seek help or seek assistance from other hikers.
Continuing on
Throughout the hike, the trail seems to run where the water flows along segments of the trail so it can be pretty muddy and slippery. The trail is generally moderately wooded so you’ll have plenty of inner-forest views, but there are a few thinned areas where you can pier out to toward the southern ridge.
One of a few spots you can catch some early views through the trees Condition of the trail further up
I arrived at the campsite, which is about 3.8miles from the trailhead. It is pretty distinguishable along the trail. The campsite is in good condition, with a level area for a couple tents next to each other. There is a small fire-pit, but not outhouses or bear boxes. It would be suggested to set up a bear bag in the trees or put your food/smellables in a bear canister. There is a small stream nearby to get water.
Campsite to Turnaround Point. 4hr 40min (2hr 18min)
After a quick 10min break at the campsite, I got back on the trail. Over the next mile or so you start to get some better views, which is a huge improvement from the semi-obscured ones earlier. When I did a partial of this hike in early April, the snow started around the 3600ft mark, so the vegetation has not quite sprung back, but you can see a lot of budding plant-life along these open spaces.
Snowline
Once I passed the Glacier Wilderness sign, I was expecting to encounter the snowline pretty soon. After a few hundred meters, I arrived at the snowline, which was around 4600ft area. From here I put on my over-boots and microspikes due to the type and quality of snow. For the rest of the trip, I did not change into the snowshoes. There were a couple of areas where it would have made sense, but the route was not conducive to wear them the whole time, for me at least.
Once I got in the snow, I could generally follow the trail and existing tracks, but after a while, the tracks were harder to follow. At this point, I took out my GAIA app to check to see where I was at in relation to the trail. The trail is marked on the app. Once I got a general idea of where I was, I would pick a spot off in the distance and walk to it, then navigate to the next spot. The Green Trails map is good for the this trail, but the GAIA app has more fidelity and capable of zooming in to inspect the contours and topography.
Eventually I got to the ridgeline, then followed along. From the ridgeline to where I wrapped up my hike, there wasn’t any tracks to go off of so navigating and reading the topography was quite important, especially among the trees. Luckily the snow pack is pretty decent, thought there were a few spots where I post-holed up to my hips. Be cognizant near tree bases as those areas tend to melt out first. In the pictures below you can begin to see Glacier Peak, Zi lob Peak, Sloan Peak (in the distance), Mt Pugh and White Chuck Mountain.
Once you hit the 5100-5200ft contour the trail becomes more pleasant with some stretches of nice views. You still have to navigate amongst the trees until you get to the big snowfield (below)
Final stretch
The following photo is from the lower part of the open snowfield leading up to where I would stop for the day.
Once I got to my turnaround spot, I scoped out the eastern views looking toward Huckleberry Mountain (in the foreground in the pictures below). From here, it looks like it would likely take another 40 minutes to get to the summit of Huckleberry Mountain with the snow. I’ll have to redo the hike in June or July to get the views from there. By then the snow should be cleared out for the most part. Just to the left of Huckleberry Mountain is Hurricane Peak.
In the panoramic picture below, from left to right you can see Mount Buckindy (immediately to the right of Huckleberry along the snow covered ridgeline), then in the far background is Old Guard and Sentinel Peaks, then Green Mountain in the closer right side.
In the following panoramic picture facing south, (from left to right) Glacier Peak, Black Mountain (far background), Zi Lob Peak(near left-center), Circle Peak (center-foreground), Sloan Peak (far background), Mount Pugh, and White Chuck Mountain.
The sky was really clear and the haze was very minimal, making the views very ideal. A definite worthwhile trip, even with the shoulder incident. Bring a map and compass or have maps on your phone to point out the various peaks and ridges. I stayed at the turnaround point for about 20 minutes. I think this would be a great place to have camped out over night.
Over-boots with microspikes
As a side note, there is minimal cell service where I was, but this will vary based on your provider (I use Google Fi).
Returning to Parking Lot. 7hr 35min (2hr 55min)
After wrapping up my break, I began the journey back down. At this point, I turned on my GAIA app to begin recording the route I took up. After utilizing the app for the past few hikes, it certainly makes drawing the tracks much easier and roughly assessing distance and elevation. The prime reason for only recording the return trip is to ensure I have sufficient battery to get me back to the parking area. There are a few areas along the route through the forest where you can get minimal service. Should anything happen, I prefer to have enough battery to get a help message out to a friend.
The return trip was surprisingly much quicker than I was anticipating. In comparison to the ascent, I shaved off a little over an hour and a half on my return. I would also attribute a significant drop in time traversing through the snow since I wasn’t having to navigate along the way back thanks to my tracks from the way up, as well as burning time due to the shoulder incident.
The following photos depict some of the last prominent views along the trip back. As the sun began to set, the greens really popped more in contrast to the background views.
Mt Baker in the far background Last glimpse of White Chuck
Trip Metrics
- Total Mileage: ~12.3 miles
- Total Elevation: ~5816 ft
- Start Time: ~12PM Saturday 11 May 2019
- Finish Time: ~7:35PM
- Total Time: 7hr 35min
