Copper Lake

Nikki and I hiked 35 miles through the North Cascade Wilderness. It all Started on Saturday Morning.. We woke up grabbed our packs, and headed for the Ranger Station, and then with a back country permit in hand we were off for the Trail Head. We started our hike around 11am. Our first leg was a 4 mile climb up to the top of Hannagan Pass. From There we hiked another 6.2 miles along the chilliwack River to a campground called U.S. Cabins. This part of the hike was through the forest and was very quite. At one point Nikki screamed when a deer jumped out in front of her, thinking it was a bear!

Sunday Morning we woke up, packed up and hit the trail by 8:30. Today would be our hardest day. We had to hike 12.7 miles, the first 5.2 miles which was fairly flat. During that leg we had to cross Brush Creek which had a great cable car, and then Indian Creek which had a great wobbly suspension bridge. At the end of the 5.2 miles we were at the base of a 4000 foot climb. We stopped to have lunch and watch lots of salmon swimming in the Chilliwack river spawning. Next we hike up 4000 feet over 7.2 miles. We arrived at our campground at around 6:30 for a quick dinner and then off to a good night sleep!

Monday Morning we woke up early to a low 30's Temperature. The condensation on the tent was frozen (yes ice on our tent in august!) I was also pretty much frozen in my 40 degree sleeping bag. But the sky was clear and when the sun came out we warmed up real fast. We left camp around 7:30, the trail kept going up about another 900 feet to the copper ridge lookout tower. From there you could see mountains all around you, it was absolutely incredible. We could see Mt. Baker, Mt. Larrabee (Which we had hiked too the weekend prior) as well as Mt. Redoubt, Bear Mountain, Ruth Mountain and Indian Mountain. We then hiked along the ridgeline for another 5 or so miles before we dropped back into the Chilliwack river valley and then back over Hannagan pass and finally to our car at around 3:30. We had a great time but were throughrly exhaused and sore. All in all we hiked 35 miles with a little over 10K feet elevation gain! Enjoy the Pictures!