At the midpoint of the loop hike on trail 1308.1, between trails
1308 and 1301 lays a fantastic view of Mt. Rainier. A little
further along the trail is a spectacular view of Mt Daniels to the
north.
Located at 5500 feet elevation, this is the high point of the
hike. To get here (we traveled in a counter clock wise direction)
requires a net elevation gain of 5300 feet (lots of ups and downs
of 500 feet really add up.) The trail is faint and difficult to
travel. We lost it a couple times but some lucky or intuitive
guesses and frequent checks of the maps, both paper and electronic,
kept us moving forward. The two trail junctions on either end are
included for your reference.
Continuing on, the trail eventually (after a short and
fortunately final climb) quickly descends to the Silver Springs
valley and a final and relatively flat 4.5 miles through forests,
blow downs, and meadows. We needed to cross a number of streams
which only slightly get the boots wet. Most of the blow downs are
cleared but some still remain. This portion of the trail allows
both horses and bikes of which we only saw tracks.
There are two other caches that we placed during our loop
hike:
Resources: Green Trails map 208 (Lake Kachees), Best Loop
Hikes, Washington (by Dan A. Nelson and Alan Bauer, The
Mountaineers Books)
Getting there: Don’t follow the direction in the “Best
Loop Hikes” book as they are way out of date and led to our
undoing. Exit I-90 at exit 70 (Easton.) Drive over the freeway and
turn left onto Kachees Dam Road, then proceed to Forest Service
Road 4818 and turn right. Continue to an unsigned road junction
(the trailhead sign is missing, but there is a red flag on a tree).
Turn right and continue a half-mile or so to the trailhead (stay
straight at a T junction). Note that this last road is not marked
on any maps I have and so a waypoint (estimated) is included for
your benefit.